"Completely Toying with a Person with Disabilities"... Agency Changes Tune After Investigation Begins

A mobile phone store in Seoul has been accused of taking advantage of a man in his 40s with intellectual and physical disabilities, who visited the store to switch to a cheaper mobile plan but ended up being signed up for an expensive plan, various value-added services, and even a mutual aid (funeral) service.

[Interview - Victim's Sibling: My brother has intellectual and physical disabilities. When he asked to set his bill to around 30,000 won, they told him they would do it, but then said, "If you use this plan (the most expensive one) and the highest-tier value-added services, you can use it at the cheap rate you asked for." That in itself is a scam. They were completely toying with a person with disabilities. It makes absolutely no sense.]

Although the victim was in a state where he could not properly understand the terms of the contracts, such as the mutual aid service, it is reported that the store recommended these unfair contracts while fully aware of his condition.

[Interview - Victim's Sibling: My brother doesn't even know the meaning of the word 'mutual aid,' and they signed him up without any explanation of what it was. My brother didn't have the 88,000 won required for the service. Since the money had to be withdrawn to sign up, they put 88,000 won into his account and called him all day long. They kept asking, 'Did you withdraw it?' until they made him withdraw the money and told him to pay them back.]

During this process, additional damages occurred, including the unauthorized disposal of the victim's existing mobile phone and the provision of a lower-spec used phone in its place.

The victim's family visited the store to protest, but the store reportedly maintained an uncooperative attitude.

Consequently, the family contacted the telecommunications company's headquarters directly to report the damages.

However, it is reported that the store in question continued to show an inappropriate attitude during subsequent customer interactions.

[Voice - Store Employee: The customer service center is actually meaningless. No matter what you say to them, we are the ones responsible for all financial processing and damage-related issues. So, frankly, it makes no sense to me that they mentioned they would retrieve the previous device. Just go with what I have retrieved for now. I will overturn that and have them correct their statement.]

However, once SBS News Hunters began its investigation, the store's attitude changed.

Coincidentally, that very night, the representative of the store visited the victim to apologize.

[Voice - Store Representative: The customer told me about what had happened, and I listened to everything and told him I was truly sorry... The cancellation of the customer's mobile phone subscription has already been processed. As for the phone he was using before, it had already been sold as a used item, so I told him I would replace it with a new model. I told him I would do my best to make things right.]

Experts have pointed out that this incident may go beyond simple fraud and could potentially constitute quasi-fraud and a violation of the Act on Welfare of Persons with Disabilities.

Reported by Lee Se-young | Video by Choi Gang-san | Video Source: News Hunters | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.