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A large number of online ticket scalpers, who resold professional baseball game tickets—which typically sell out in a flash—at prices up to five times their face value, have been caught. When the police apprehended them, they turned out to be ordinary people, including homemakers, office workers, and civil servants.

Reporter Yoo Soo-Hwan has the story.

[Reporter]

At an internet cafe in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.

A man sits in front of two computers displaying professional baseball game schedules and booking pages.

Moments later, the police raid 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 have been apprehended by the police for reselling over 20,000 tickets between March of last year and recently.

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 secure their own seats quickly, but then realized they could easily make money by reselling them.

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

[Kim Seong-taek, Head of Cyber Crime Investigation Team 1, Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency: When you normally access the site, it shows that thousands of people are in the queue. (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 in this manner were resold at 1.5 to 5 times their original price. One office worker in his 30s made 390 million won by selling 6,000 tickets over the course of a year.

The police stated that they are working with ticket booking operators to develop defensive measures against the macro and direct link programs used for such online line-cutting.

(Video editing: Park Na-young, Footage provided by: Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency)