[On the Way Home] "Selling Lunar New Year Train Tickets"... Resale of Train Tickets Thrives in Open Chat Rooms and Junggonara

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-gi] On the 24th, when the Lunar New Year holiday officially began, posts buying and selling train tickets were noticeable on platforms such as Junggonara and KakaoTalk open chat rooms. There have been cases where the other party took the money for the train ticket but then cut off contact.

KORAIL conducted ticket reservations for the Gyeongbu, Gyeongjeon, Donghae, and Chungbuk lines on the 7th, and for the Honam, Jeolla, Gangneung, Janghang, and Jungang lines on the 8th. Tickets for KTX, Saemaeul, and Mugunghwa trains operating during the Lunar New Year holiday from the 23rd to the 27th sold out instantly after reservations opened. Especially this year, due to the shorter holiday compared to previous years, the reservation battle appears to have been even more intense.

As demand for reservations surges during this period, illegal ticket resale with premiums also increases. On Junggonara, a representative secondhand trading cafe, posts are appearing offering to sell tickets with a premium of 5,000 to 10,000 KRW per ticket. Although the Korea Railroad Corporation has informed secondhand trading cafes to prevent unfair ticket transactions, it seems practically difficult to block all the rapidly increasing train ticket transaction posts. According to the Railroad Business Act, selling tickets at a price higher than the purchase price without being authorized by the railroad operator constitutes illegal ticket resale. Violators may face fines of up to 10 million KRW or penalties of up to 200,000 KRW.

In the urgency to obtain tickets, some people transfer money without confirming the other party’s information and end up being scammed. Posts reporting ticket fraud have already appeared on secondhand trading cafes. One user who wrote such a post stated plans to file a group complaint with other victims and left contact information.