Hit With 1 Billion Won Bill in 4 Days... HQ and Reseller Shirk Responsibility

[Anchor]

An overseas cloud service user was suddenly billed 1 billion won for just four days of usage. It turned out the account had been hacked. Although a dispute mediation committee ruled that it was not the user's fault, both the overseas headquarters and the domestic vendor that sold the service are simply passing the buck.

Reporter Park Jaehyeon has the details.

[Reporter]

A man in his 30s surnamed Seo had been using Amazon cloud services through an official domestic reseller.

In October 2024, he received an email from the reseller.

The email stated that his daily usage fee, which usually amounted to around 80 won, had surged to 210 million won, and hacking was suspected.

When he urgently checked his account, he found that massive workloads had been processed from at least eight countries, including Bahrain and Indonesia, over a four-day period, running up costs exceeding 1 billion won.

It is suspected that someone hacked Seo's account to mine cryptocurrency.

Although the hacking route remains unknown, the entire usage fee was billed directly to Seo.

[Seo / Cloud Service User: I was searching at night. Wondering what happens if I file for personal bankruptcy or individual rehabilitation. I thought, 'Surely I will be protected,' just like you are protected when your credit card is stolen.]

Following protests, the bill was lowered to 400 million won, but Seo, unable to agree, sought relief from the Korea Consumer Agency.

After more than a year of deliberation, the Consumer Dispute Mediation Commission ruled in July that it is difficult to conclude the incident occurred due to Seo's negligence, and noted that the reseller only recognized the surge in usage four days after it began, ultimately deciding that Seo has no obligation to pay.

However, the reseller refused to accept the mediation decision.

[Seo / Cloud Service User: Even if I bear some responsibility for the charges, I feel aggrieved about the amount escalating like this, when there was nothing I could do. That anxiety is always with me in my daily life.]

Amazon stated that the matter is between the reseller and the customer, claiming it has nothing to do with them, while the domestic reseller announced it is currently looking for ways to minimize the burden on the user.

As hacking using AI surges, similar disputes are expected to increase.

[Kim Tae-hoon / Professor, Graduate School of Metaverse, Sogang University: These kinds of incidents are going to become more frequent, so there is a need to standardize response procedures, much like a traffic accident response manual.]

Some experts suggest there is a need for an institution like the UK ombudsman system that can issue legally binding arbitration decisions following professional investigations.

(Camera: Park Jin-ho, Cho Chang-hyun | Video Editing: Choi Jin-hwa, Design: 이준호, VJ: Lee Ji-huan)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.