Korea Consumer Agency Reports 4x Increase in Damages from Overseas Fraudulent Websites

Consumer Agency Reports 367 Cases of Damage Related to Specific Email Addresses Last Year

On the 10th, the Korea Consumer Agency warned that damages related to overseas scam sites using specific email addresses are increasing and urged caution.

According to the Consumer Agency, the sites reported for damages were using email addresses such as @gehobuy.com, @top-sale-korea.com, @hookiee.com, @uu365kr.com, and @hotupbuymall.com. Although the site addresses differed, the homepage layouts and damage details were similar, suggesting they were operated by the same business entity.

The number of damages related to these specific email addresses increased about fourfold to 367 cases last year compared to the previous year. These sites are direct purchase shopping malls operated by overseas businesses, but they were in Korean and did not properly indicate overseas direct purchase on product pages. Payments could be easily made with just card information without signing up for membership, and required customs unique numbers necessary for purchasing overseas products were not requested. Because of this, most consumers mistook these sites for domestic shopping malls, purchased products, and only realized they were overseas sites after receiving payment messages.

However, many companies refused order cancellation requests or unilaterally shipped products. In particular, they continued operations by periodically changing website addresses and emails, causing ongoing damages. By product category, clothing and shoes accounted for the highest damage at 68.1%, and the main damage types were contract cancellations and refund refusals or delays at 82.8%. Analyzing 276 cases with confirmed access routes showed that 84.4% accessed the sites through social networking service (SNS) advertisements, mainly YouTube (84.5%) and Instagram (8.6%).

The Consumer Agency urged consumers to check suspected scam sites on the International Trade Consumer Portal and to pay by credit card whenever possible to prevent damages. If damages occur, consumers can apply for the 'chargeback' service to request transaction cancellations from credit card companies.