"Good Photos Please" Suspicious Request from Female College Friend... Turns Out to Be a Man in His 20s

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyun-joo] A friend whom a female college freshman had been in contact with for nearly a year after meeting in a group chatroom for new students was revealed to be a man in his 20s with no connection to the university. The female victim, who had shared photos and personal information, is now trembling with anxiety.

On the 22nd, JTBC reported that Ms. A, who enrolled last year at a women's university in Seoul, had been communicating with a man who pretended to be a fellow freshman at the same university in a group chatroom, only to discover his true identity recently.

Ms. A said, "I joined the new student group chatroom, where you have to verify your acceptance, because I wanted to get university information and become closer with my classmates." There, she met Mr. B, who introduced himself as 'Lee Midam,' a fellow freshman from the class of 2020.

Ms. A exchanged messages with Mr. B for nearly a year. Although they never met in person, she did not suspect anything because Mr. B sent her photos of himself and the chatroom required acceptance verification to join.

The online friend, Mr. B, gradually made strange requests. He asked for photos "to use as reference for drawing" or requested her home address, saying he wanted to send gifts. As these suspicious demands repeated, Ms. A began to doubt Mr. B.

Eventually, Ms. A asked Mr. B to have a phone call. However, the person who answered was a man. Claiming to be 'Lee Midam's older brother,' he confessed under Ms. A's persistent questioning that he had been pretending to be a female college student all along.

The photos Mr. B sent to Ms. A and the acceptance certificate he verified in the chatroom were all fake. The woman in the 'selfie' he sent was actually a photo stolen from Facebook, and the acceptance certificate was a screenshot of a university acceptance page obtained through an online search.

It was revealed that Mr. B had contacted five other students besides Ms. A and obtained personal information such as addresses, phone numbers, and photos.

Ms. A expressed her anxiety, saying, "I thought he was a woman and had been in contact for a year, but knowing that my personal information, photos, name, birthday, university, and major have been exposed makes me very uneasy," adding, "I haven't been able to sleep well."

The police plan to summon the victim for investigation soon and review the charges to be applied to Mr. B.