Sent 2 Won but Pretended to Repay 20,000 Won... The Story of Using a Trick with the Depositor's Name and Being Cut Off

Pretending to Repay by Writing '20000' as Depositor Name
Netizens Say "Go Out and Do Manual Labor" in Criticism

Netizens are outraged over a story in which someone borrowed 20,000 won from an acquaintance, wrote '20000' as the remitter's name to pretend they had repaid the money, but actually sent only 2 won.

On the 24th, an online community 'Instiz' posted a thread titled 'Couldn't repay 20,000 won, sent 2 won to pretend I paid...' The author, A, wrote, "What should I do? People are cursing and making a fuss. I admit I was wrong. What should I do? Should I send 20,000 won? Help me," along with a phone call recording and KakaoTalk message screenshots.

After borrowing 20,000 won from an acquaintance, the person wrote "20000" as the depositor's name to make it look like they had repaid the money, but actually sent only 2 won, causing outrage among netizens. The photo is not directly related to the article. [Image source=Getty Images]

The recording contains a conversation between two people. The person who sent 2 won keeps apologizing repeatedly, while the lender cannot contain their anger and says, "Don't contact me again." The KakaoTalk messages are similar. The lender said, "Don't contact me anymore. I forgave you twice, but I won't forgive a third time," suggesting the same person was deceived more than twice using the same method. In response, A said, "No, I was wrong," and replied, "Sorry. I'll send the money when I have it."

A person who borrowed 20,000 won from an acquaintance and repaid '2 won' posted a KakaoTalk conversation [Image source=Social Networking Service (SNS) capture]

A responded to comments from netizens one by one, explaining the situation. She repeatedly said she had no money and claimed to be a woman born in 1998. Netizens criticized A with comments like, "What do you want help with?", "Just go out and do manual labor," "It's scary that such a person exists," "Sell something on secondhand trading platforms and pay back. No excuse," and "If you don't have 20,000 won, how do you pay your phone bill?" Some also pointed out the problem of A unilaterally releasing the recorded call with the other party's voice after deceiving them. They said A's behavior is "a method used by account transfer scammers."

The method of writing the amount in the remitter's name while making account transfers to traditional market merchants or taxi drivers has been seen before.

In March, a middle school student who deceived a taxi driver by falsely claiming to have sent the fare incorrectly and then pocketed the difference in cash was sentenced to prison in the first trial. Although only 1 won was actually transferred, the remitter's name was written as 'Deposit 110000' to show the taxi driver and demand the difference back.

Last winter, there were many cases where people bought 2,000 to 3,000 won worth of fish-shaped bread or hotteok from street vendors but only transferred 200 to 300 won, leading vendors to refuse account transfers and sell only for cash. It is known that these offenders exploited the fact that vendors could not properly check transfer amounts during busy business hours to commit such misdeeds.