"Got Any Canceled Tickets?" Train Ticket Scramble Leads to Scams

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With the Chuseok holiday approaching, a fierce scramble is underway among people who have yet to secure train tickets as they desperately hunt for canceled seats. You need to be careful, as scammers are taking advantage of this by selling tickets at inflated prices on secondhand trading platforms and then disappearing.

Reporter Jeong Jiyeon has more.

[Reporter]

People are gathered in front of the ticket counters at Seoul Station.

[Station Staff: They are all sold out. There are already too many people on the reservation waiting list, so right now....]

[Kim Seong-sik and Kim Da-yeon / Returning to Daegu for Chuseok: I managed to get a ticket, but my wife has to travel down separately the day before Chuseok, so I came to see if there were any standing-room tickets left, but as expected, there are none.]

Let us take a look at the ticket vending machine.

This is for a train heading from Seoul to Pohang.

Starting from the day before Chuseok when the holiday begins, all seats, including standing-room tickets, are completely sold out.

This Chuseok holiday train reservation rate stands at 84%, which is 21.3 percentage points higher than last Chuseok, when travel was dispersed across a seven-day holiday.

[Song Ji-min / Returning to Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do: It was so difficult this time. Everything is completely sold out. Since everyone is heading back on Sunday, it seems even harder to secure a ticket. It feels like going to war...]

Posts looking to buy KTX tickets are continuously being uploaded on secondhand trading platforms. A family of four lost 400,000 won after sending money to a scammer who preyed on this desperation, only to never receive the tickets.

[Returning to Busan: I offered a higher price because I really wanted to get my hands on the tickets. When the train tickets kept not arriving, I tried calling, but the phone was unreachable—it must have been a burner phone.]

An IT company has developed and launched a free service program that notifies users when a canceled ticket becomes available after inputting their desired train schedule.

[Lee Ho-se / Vacant Seat Alert Service Developer: A friend of mine sometimes has to travel from Daejeon to Seoul for business, and every time, there are no KTX tickets... I thought it would be great to have an alarm app that at least tells you, "A vacant seat is available right now," so I made it.]

Even purchasing proxy agencies have emerged, charging fees to snatch up canceled tickets on behalf of others. However, Korail maintains that this is also illegal trading involving the resale of tickets above standard prices.

(Photo courtesy of: Kang Si-woo | Video Editing: Lim Yeojin | Design: Yang Gi-tae)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.