Keep your phone and SIM in your own name — do not hand them to others
This page is machine translated from Ieumi's guide written in Korean. If the meaning is confusing, please look at the Korean original text. View original text (Korean)
In Korea, your phone number is used to confirm who you are on bank and government websites. Open your phone in your own name, and do not hand your phone or SIM in your name over for someone else to keep using.
📌 Key points
The Telecommunications Business Act forbids handing over a phone opened in your name so it can be used for someone else's communications. If you break it, you can be punished by up to 1 year in prison or a fine of up to 50 million won. The law's exception is when someone else uses it "not repeatedly" — a family member or friend briefly borrowing a phone is different from handing over a SIM so that someone else keeps using it.
📞 Contact
The carrier store or customer center where you opened the phone
⚠️ Things to watch out for
Opening and using a phone in someone else's name on the condition of lending money, urging or introducing or advertising such openings, and opening and using a phone in someone else's name to use it for fraud can be punished by up to 3 years in prison or a fine of up to 100 million won (Telecommunications Business Act Article 32-4 paragraph 1 and Article 95-2). Words like "Open just a SIM and we'll pay you" can be words used to collect burner phones. Carriers are required, when they open a phone, to tell you that you must not hand your phone over for others to use, and that doing so can be punished by up to 1 year in prison or a fine of up to 50 million won (Article 32-4 paragraph 4).
❗ What happens if you don't
If a phone in your name is used for fraud in someone else's hands, you who handed it over can also be punished.
See also
Basis
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This content was checked on 2026-10-22.