Cases of cybercrimes confirmed by police across South Korea have increased over 20 percent, with phishing scams raging, in the first half of this year, data from the National Police Agency showed Friday.

During the January-June period, the number of cybercrimes stood at 85,953, up 22.4 percent from a year ago, which means a cybercrime takes place every three minutes and an average 465 instances of cybercrimes per day hit the country.

Among the cybercrimes, the highest number of 42,028 concerned internet fraud in which victims are led to purchase goods at fake shopping sites on the internet without the goods being delivered.

Cases of online defamation and slander came next at 7,664, followed by online gambling at 3,155.

Those phishing scams were tallied at 1,836, showing the sharpest on-year growth rate of 178.60 percent. In a phishing scam, people often using social networking services are tricked into making cash remittances via instant messengers after scammers pretending to be an acquaintance request a money transfer. (Yonhap)