Fraudulent Claims Identified via YouTube Unique IDs
Donghaeng Lottery "Actively Considering Reporting to Investigative Agencies"
It has been revealed that the culprit who embezzled the lottery winnings of a famous YouTuber is the owner of a lottery ticket sales store located in Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi Province, and Donghaeng Lottery is actively considering reporting the case to investigative authorities.
Donghaeng Lottery recently announced on its website in a post titled 'Notice Regarding YouTuber (Heopop) Video Receiving Winnings Without Physical Lottery Ticket' that "It has been confirmed that a lottery sales store in Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi Province, violated the principle of prize payment by intentionally processing the payment of winnings using the verification number manually entered from the winning ticket exposed in the YouTuber's video."
In principle, 4th and 5th prize winnings at lottery sales stores must be paid only after verifying the winning status through the store's terminal with the physical winning ticket. However, as an exception, if the winning ticket is significantly damaged, the prize can be paid by face-to-face verification with the winner through manual entry of the ticket's verification number.
However, it is presumed that the store exploited the clearly visible verification number on the winning lottery ticket shown in YouTuber Heopop's video to fraudulently claim the winnings.
Accordingly, Donghaeng Lottery stated regarding the lottery store owner who embezzled the winnings, "During the inspection of the store, we secured a statement of facts for all actions and closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage. Based on this, we plan to take measures at our level for breach of contract and actively consider reporting to investigative authorities." They added, "We will strengthen education and management of sales stores to ensure that online lottery sales contractors comply with the obligations of lottery sales and prize payments, and will take strong actions if the trustworthiness of the business is compromised."
They also emphasized, "We urge lottery purchasers to be especially careful not to expose information about their winning tickets to others by posting them on social media (SNS) or elsewhere."
Previously, Heopop posted a video on the 6th of last month showing him visiting 100 lottery sales stores and purchasing a total of 10 million KRW worth of lottery tickets to experiment with the odds of winning the lottery.
As a result of the 1084th lottery draw he participated in, he won 222 5th prize tickets and 13 4th prize tickets, totaling 1.76 million KRW in winnings. There were no 1st, 2nd, or 3rd prize tickets.
In a video posted on the 17th, he said he went to a lottery sales store with his 5th prize winning tickets to claim the prize but was told that the tickets had already been paid out.
Even after checking at another store, the fact that the tickets were "already paid" did not change.
Heopop asked an employee, "If I had received the money, I wouldn't still have the lottery tickets," and inquired, "Is this an error?" The employee replied, "It's not an error; someone else took the money."
Heopop then called the lottery customer inquiry center and confirmed that someone had claimed the 5,000 KRW prize on the 4th of last month at 2:36:40 PM.
When he called the lottery store that paid out the winnings to ask for details, the store explained that it was their fault.
Heopop explained, "(In principle, the) QR code or barcode on the winning ticket is scanned to pay the money, but if the QR code or barcode is torn, the unique number written on the ticket is used to claim the money." He added, "During that process, the number was entered incorrectly, and it seems that it was the unique number of the lottery ticket I had."
He also stated that the store said, "There seems to have been an error," and deposited the 5,000 KRW prize money into his account.
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