SK Telecom (SKT), the largest mobile operator in South Korea by subscribers, partnered one of the country’s financial regulators to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to fight voice phishing attacks.

In a statement, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said it will provide voice phishing fraud data to SKT to enable the operator to detect potential scams in real time and notify subscribers if an incoming call is suspect.

The FSS said current systems use key words to detect attacks, while the new AI platform will be based on context.

In October, the financial authority called for banks and other financial institutions to increase their efforts to protect customers from voice phishing scams, which it estimated caused KRW180 billion ($159 million) in losses in the first half of 2018, up 74 per cent year-on-year, ZDnet reported.

SKT is expected to release the AI system in the first half of 2019. The FSS and SKT will look to expand on their prevention effort by developing what the financial authority described as a “damage prevention system” at some point in the future.