A Man in His 20s Deceived 900 People Selling NCT Photocards
A person in their 20s was found guilty of swindling tens of millions of won by falsely claiming to sell photocards of a popular idol group at the center of fandom culture.
According to the legal community and Yonhap News on the 4th, the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 2 (Judge Park So-jung) sentenced A (24), who was indicted on fraud charges, to two years in prison with a three-year probation period and ordered probation.
From September 2021 for about a year, A posted messages claiming to sell photocards of the famous idol group NCT. He received money from fans who wanted to purchase them but did not send the photocards. There were 153 victims, and the amount of damage reached about 10.28 million won.
Usually, limited edition photocards are traded for tens of thousands of won on SNS or secondhand trading platforms such as Bungaejangter and Danggeun Market, but he exploited the relatively small amounts by taking money without sending the photocards.
The court stated, “Electronic commerce fraud crimes targeting many people cause numerous victims and have significant social harm, so the nature of the crime is serious and strict punishment is necessary,” adding, “He has a prior record of similar crimes and committed the offense even while the first trial at Uijeongbu District Court was ongoing.”
However, the court said the sentence was determined considering that A admitted all charges and a significant portion of the damage was recovered.
It was also reported that in June last year, A posted messages claiming to sell photocards of the same group and swindled about 3.61 million won from 46 victims over about five months. He also deceived people by claiming to sell albums of the popular girl group NewJeans and received about 140,000 won, totaling about 14 million won.
Earlier, A was sentenced to one year and six months in prison with a three-year probation period by Uijeongbu District Court for swindling about 47 million won from 758 people using the same method in June, a sentence that was finalized.
Including the Seoul Central District Court case, the number of victims reaches about 900.
Meanwhile, as K-pop’s popularity rises and fraud crimes involving photocards worth hundreds of millions of won increase, some civic groups have called for changes to the random photocard marketing by entertainment agencies that encourage gambling tendencies.
In a statement last January, environmental groups such as the Korean Federation for Environmental Movements and the Community IT Social Cooperative pointed out, “To obtain photocards, one must purchase hundreds or thousands of the same album, and because of this, highly rare photocards are traded for over a million won per card,” adding, “K-pop random photocard marketing fosters gambling tendencies and promotes excessive consumption because consumers frequently experience satisfaction from profits by chance or material rewards.”
They continued, “Entertainment agencies should establish a transparent system where fans can directly select and purchase the photocards they want,” and demanded, “The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Environment, as related departments, should no longer overlook this situation and devise appropriate regulations to resolve social and environmental issues.”
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