Idol, Pro Baseball Tickets Sold at 110x Markup: Ring Pockets 2.2 Billion Won

Police investigators execute a search and seizure warrant against a man dressed in black.

He is identified as Mr. A, in his 30s, who is accused of developing macro programs—automated repetitive input tools—to bulk purchase tickets for popular idol concerts and professional baseball games and reselling them as scalped tickets.

The Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency announced that it has booked 24 men and women aged in their 20s to 60s, including Mr. A, without detention on charges of obstruction of business, violation of the Public Performance Act, and violation of the National Sports Promotion Act.

They are accused of acquiring 15,500 tickets for idol concerts and professional baseball games from major domestic ticketing websites since 2022 until recently, and reselling them to pocket 2.2 billion won.

Investigations revealed that the group mobilized macro programs and hundreds of accounts under the names of other people, such as family members and acquaintances, at an office equipped with 22 computers to preemptively secure seats before gathering buyers on social media.

They were subsequently found to have used methods such as handing out tickets on-site or delivering them individually in areas including Songpa and Mapo in Seoul, and Goyang in Gyeonggi Province.

In particular, investigations showed they reaped exorbitant profits, selling concert tickets with a face value of 200,000 won for about 34 times that amount at 6.72 million won, and Korean Series professional baseball tickets originally priced at 81,000 won for 8.93 million won—a markup of nearly 110 times.

It was confirmed that some of the suspects in the ring held foreign nationalities.

Believing that the group exploited security vulnerabilities in the ticketing websites using macro programs, the police notified the respective ticketing websites of the vulnerabilities and requested improvements.

The police also stated that they are tracking the suspects' accounts to pre-indictment preserve 2.1 billion won in criminal proceeds—including land, stocks, and deposits—and are taking steps to additionally freeze the remaining 102 million won in criminal proceeds.

(Reported by Lee Tae-gwon | Video by Choi Hye-young | Footage provided by Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.