Scalpers Pocketed 390 Million Won in a Year: The Surprising Identities Behind Baseball Ticket Fraud

[Anchor]

A large group of online scalpers who resold professional baseball tickets at prices up to five times the original cost has been caught. After being tracked down, it was revealed that they were not professional dealers, but ordinary people such as homemakers and office workers.

Reporter Yoo Soo-Hwan has the story.

[Reporter]

An internet cafe in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.

A man sits in front of two computers displaying professional baseball game schedules and ticket reservation windows.

Moments later, police storm the scene.

[We are executing a search and seizure warrant on charges of violating the Information and Communications Network Act. Take your hands off the keyboard.]

He is arrested on the spot for illegally reselling 300 professional baseball tickets.

The man, a 30-something office worker, confessed to the police that he had acted alone.

A total of 35 online scalpers, who have resold over 20,000 tickets from March of last year to recently, have been apprehended by the police.

The majority were not members of criminal organizations, but ordinary office workers, civil servants, and homemakers.

They told the police that they initially used programs like macros to quickly book their own seats, but then realized they could easily make money by reselling them.

They mainly used automated input programs known as macros and direct link programs.

[Kim Seong-taek / Chief of Cybercrime Investigation Unit 1, Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency: When you normally access a site, it shows that thousands of people are waiting. (A direct link) is a program that pulls up the seat selection screen immediately, as if cutting in line. It allows them to book tickets faster than anyone else.]

Tickets obtained this way were resold at prices ranging from 1.5 to 5 times the original price. One office worker in their 30s sold 6,000 tickets over the course of a year, pocketing 390 million won.

The police stated that they are working with ticket reservation operators to develop defensive measures against the macros and direct link programs used for this online queue-jumping.

(Video Editing: Park Na-young, Footage courtesy of Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.