Crackdown Strengthened but... KTX Ticket Scalping Still Rampant During Chuseok

Multiple Posts Detected on Secondhand Trading Platform
Korail Lacks Authority to Impose Fines

Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) has threatened to crack down on illegal ticket trading that recurs every holiday, but scalping is still rampant online.

Ticket sale post posted on a secondhand trading platform (left photo) and circumstances of selling canceled tickets through an open chat room.
[Photo by secondhand trading platform capture]

According to a secondhand trading platform on the 13th, numerous posts were uploaded selling KTX and SRT tickets. In particular, sellers stocking multiple tickets by date and time stood out. One seller was selling seven tickets, including round-trip KTX tickets from Seoul to Busan departing between the 16th and 18th, and SRT tickets to Busan. Another seller explained in a post that they had several SRT tickets to Busan departing at 10:50 a.m. on the 14th.

There were also cases where sellers accepted reservations promising to get canceled tickets at a low price. When inquiring about the price of an SRT ticket to Busan from one seller, the reply was that the buyer needed to pay the regular price of 51,800 won plus an additional 10,000 won as a service fee. The seller said, "I can get tickets for all routes and all time slots," and "If you transfer the ticket price and service fee, I will send the ticket via the messenger gift function." It is presumed that these tickets were booked using macro programs, which repeatedly check the ticket reservation page by the second to scoop up canceled tickets all at once.

KORAIL has collaborated with major online secondhand trading platforms to delete sales posts when keywords related to scalping are detected. Last year, during the Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays, KORAIL requested police investigations into about ten sellers suspected of mass hoarding or distributing tickets. However, despite these efforts, scalping has been difficult to eradicate.

In fact, the number of warning messages KORAIL issued this Lunar New Year to accounts suspected of using macro programs was about 130. Considering that only 23 warnings were issued during last year’s Lunar New Year and Chuseok, this is a significant increase. Reports of suspected scalping during last Lunar New Year also reached around 30 cases.

Under current law, illegal resale of train tickets can result in fines of up to 10 million won. However, KORAIL, as the railway operator, lacks the authority to crack down or impose fines, making effective punishment difficult. A KORAIL official explained, "Since KORAIL does not have the authority to directly detect scalping activities or impose fines, we have to request police investigations and wait, which is a challenge."