LoL, Sudden Attack and Other Popular Games Account for the 'Most'
98.3% of Correction Requests Without Legal Binding
The number of cases detected by the Game Management Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Game Committee) for unfair practices in games, such as account boosting and the use of illegal programs like hacks and bots, has been found to be close to 40,000.
According to data on the "Detection Status of Account Boosting and Illegal Program Usage" submitted by the Game Committee to Kim Seung-su, a member of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee from the People Power Party, from 2019 to September 2023, 10,884 cases of account boosting and 26,795 cases of illegal program usage such as hacks and bots were detected.
The number of account boosting detections by game was highest in "League of Legends," a sport in which the South Korean national team won a gold medal at the recent Asian Games, with 5,011 cases. This was followed by ▲GTA5 (2,614 cases) ▲Seven Knights (712 cases) ▲World of Warcraft (394 cases) ▲MapleStory (239 cases). Lost Ark, which recently became a hot topic due to mass account boosting suspicions, had 145 detected cases of account boosting.
For illegal programs such as hacks and bots, the order was ▲Sudden Attack (8,181 cases) ▲Battleground (6,296 cases) ▲GTA5 (2,736 cases) ▲Overwatch (2,372 cases) ▲Diablo 3 (1,269 cases).
The number of account boosting detections by year gradually decreased from ▲2019 (2,162 cases) ▲2020 (1,509 cases) ▲2021 (680 cases), then sharply increased in ▲2022 (3,192 cases) and ▲September 2023 (3,341 cases), with 74.2% of the total 14,664 investigated cases being illegal acts.
The number of illegal program usage detections was ▲2019 (3,881 cases) ▲2020 (9,442 cases) ▲2021 (6,680 cases) ▲2022 (4,286 cases) ▲September 2023 (4,046 cases), with 60.5% of the total 44,305 investigated cases being illegal acts.
According to the Game Industry Promotion Act, if account boosting is detected, the offender may face imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of up to 20 million KRW. If illegal program usage such as hacks and bots is detected, imprisonment of up to one year or a fine of up to 10 million KRW may be imposed.
However, according to the Game Committee's status of actions taken on detected cases, only 226 cases, which is 0.599% of the total 37,679 detected cases, were referred for investigation to punish the offenders. Meanwhile, 37,038 cases, accounting for 98.3% of the total detected cases, were merely requests for correction or cooperation without legal binding force, such as simple advertisement deletion requests, raising concerns that repeated illegal acts are not being properly prevented.
The appearance of multiple illegal sites displayed when searching for 'Lol Daeri' in the search bar. [Photo by Internet capture]
Illegal transactions related to account boosting and similar activities are conducted through private transactions via SNS and messengers, making them vulnerable to payment fraud as well.
According to data from the National Police Agency, from 2019 to 2022, there were 33,522 cases of cyber direct transaction fraud related to games in the past four years, with damages amounting to 31.43799 billion KRW.
Assemblyman Kim said, "The use of illegal programs such as account boosting and hacks/bots not only undermines fair competition among gamers but also causes gamers to leave the game, thereby shrinking the game industry. Since the number of detections by the Game Committee is just the tip of the iceberg, more thorough management and supervision are necessary."
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