"Byeon Woo-seok Fan Meeting Tickets 2.35 Million Won"... Scalpers Arrested

Investigation Started Last March, Seven Suspects Arrested

Suspects who earned profits worth tens of millions of won using macro programs have been apprehended by the police.

[Photo by Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency]

The Crime Prevention and Order Division of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced that they began a preliminary investigation in March and have arrested seven individuals identified as ticket scalpers by the 24th of this month.

The suspects, mostly in their 20s and 30s including university students and job seekers familiar with using computers and macro programs, were found to have secured tickets for popular performances in advance and resold them on secondhand trading platforms to cover living expenses or pocket money. Among them, one individual earned approximately 13.38 million won by selling 15 tickets for singer Lim Young-woong's concert.

Police investigations revealed that these suspects used macro programs to access reservation links within 1 to 2 minutes, securing multiple tickets for events where ordinary people often fail to book even after waiting in line for hundreds of thousands of turns. Using this method, Lim Young-woong concert tickets were sold for up to 800,000 won per ticket (original price 187,000 won), and Na Hoon-a concert tickets were sold for 500,000 won (original price 143,000 won). The most expensive scalped ticket was for actor Byun Woo-seok's fan meeting held last July, which was traded for 2.35 million won (original price 77,000 won).

A police official stated, "Proving the use of macro programs was key to applying the Performance Act in this investigation. Through legal review and close cooperation with ticket issuing companies, we were able to confirm all criminal charges against them at the search and seizure sites." He added, "In addition to the Performance Act, we plan to actively consider charges under the Criminal Act for obstruction of business and violations of the Information and Communications Network Act depending on the methods of their crimes."