30,000 Won Tickets Sold for 460,000 Won
Counterfeit IDs Provided to Scalped Ticket Buyers
A ticket scalper who illegally purchased a large number of tickets for singer G-Dragon's (GD) concert in Taiwan and resold them at a premium, pocketing 20 million Taiwan dollars (approximately 900 million won), has been apprehended.
On July 23, Yonhap News, citing Taiwanese media such as China Times and Liberty Times, reported that "the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior arrested four individuals, including a man surnamed Liu, who were involved in ticket scalping for the Taiwan leg of the world tour 'Webermensch' held at Taipei Arena from July 11 to 13."
Singer G-Dragon is performing the world tour 'Webermensch' stage at Goyang Sports Complex in Gyeonggi on March 29. Galaxy Corporation
The CIB explained that after receiving intelligence on Liu and his associates, they raided their base with the local police on July 15 and arrested them. The authorities seized various pieces of evidence at the site, including serial numbers for G-Dragon concert ticket exchanges, 1,500 ticket exchange slips, over 1,000 physical tickets, 500 tickets for the K-pop girl group BLACKPINK's concert scheduled to be held in Kaohsiung in October, and 164,000 Taiwan dollars in cash.
According to the CIB, Liu, who is in his 40s, acquired tickets purchased by a Hong Kong-based ticketing engineer, with whom he had a cooperative relationship. The engineer used a ticketing hacking program and an ID number and name generator. Liu paid a commission of 2,000 to 3,000 Taiwan dollars (about 90,000 to 140,000 won) per ticket at face value. He resold tickets with a face value of 800 Taiwan dollars (about 30,000 won) for 9,800 Taiwan dollars (about 460,000 won), and tickets with a face value of 8,980 Taiwan dollars (about 420,000 won) for at least 55,000 Taiwan dollars (about 2.58 million won). Notably, he stayed at a hotel near the venue and operated a team of specialists who produced counterfeit IDs for buyers, enabling them to pass the real-name verification required for entry.
According to sources, after news spread online on July 11 that around 300 people who bought scalped tickets successfully entered the G-Dragon concert, fans collectively protested to the Taipei City Department of Cultural Affairs. In response, the organizers conducted strict ID checks, and the relevant authorities launched an investigation. As a result, some scalped ticket buyers were denied entry and demanded refunds from the scalpers.
Taiwanese media pointed out that this incident effectively exposed a loophole in the real-name ticketing system for cultural events in Taiwan. Previously, at BLACKPINK's world tour concert in Taiwan in March 2023, the face value of tickets was 8,800 Taiwan dollars (about 410,000 won), but scalped tickets were traded for up to 400,000 Taiwan dollars (about 18.78 million won), 45 times the original price, highlighting the issue of exorbitantly priced scalped tickets.
In response, the Legislative Yuan of Taiwan passed an amendment to the "Cultural Ticket Management Act" in May of the same year, allowing fines of up to 50 times the face value of the ticket to be imposed on scalpers. However, experts point out that fines and crackdowns alone are not sufficient, and that enhanced security for the ticketing system and stricter user authentication procedures must also be implemented.
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