Seoul Metropolitan Police Catch Scalpers Who Inflated Ticket Prices Up to 30-Fold

Police have apprehended a group of individuals who illegally purchased large quantities of admission tickets, including those for popular actor fan sign events, and resold them at inflated prices up to about 30 times the original cost.

The Cyber Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced on November 6 that it has referred 12 individuals in their 30s, including a man identified as A, to the prosecution without detention last month on charges including violations of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, the National Sports Promotion Act, and the Public Performance Act, as well as obstruction of business.

They are accused of disrupting the ticket reservation platforms' business by using macro programs to purchase a total of 3,069 tickets for sports games, concerts, and fan sign events between December 2023 and August of this year, and then reselling them at exorbitant prices.

Macro programs are illegal automated programs equipped with functions such as automatic seat selection, repeated clicking, and the detection of canceled tickets.

Broken down by ticket type, professional baseball admission tickets were the most numerous at 1,496, followed by 1,298 idol concert tickets, 170 musical tickets, 59 fan sign event tickets, and 46 tickets for other sports events.

Investigations revealed that they resold the purchased tickets on online trading platforms at 10 to 30 times the regular price.

In the case of a fan sign event for a popular actor, it was confirmed that a ticket purchased for 79,000 won was resold for 2,400,000 won.

Police stated that these 12 individuals formed group chat rooms to share criminal methods and profits, and engaged in collusion by coordinating appropriate selling prices.

Police have applied for pre-indictment asset confiscation and preservation for 416.57 million won of their illicit proceeds.

Aside from the group surrounding A, the police are also investigating the case regarding the illegal purchase and sale of professional baseball postseason tickets, which was commissioned by the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation.

Police stated, "We plan to conduct rigorous investigations moving forward in close cooperation with relevant organizations."

(File Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.