A man in his 40s was apprehended by the police for making unfair profits by purchasing large quantities of professional baseball tickets using an automated macro program and reselling them at a premium.
The Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency's Cyber Crime Investigation Unit announced on the 31st that they have booked a man in his 40s, identified as Mr. A, without detention on charges of violating the National Sports Promotion Act.
According to the police, Mr. A is accused of purchasing 133 tickets for Samsung Lions home games in bulk during June and reselling them at a premium through an online ticket trading site, making an unfair profit of approximately 2.41 million won. During this period, Mr. A reportedly used a specially designed macro program that repeatedly performed specific tasks to quickly secure the tickets.
The National Sports Promotion Act prohibits the illegal sale of tickets using macros, and violators may face up to one year in prison or a fine of up to 10 million won. A police official stated, "We are also investigating other suspicious transactions by Mr. A that may have involved the use of macros."
Since the 1st, the Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency has been intensively cracking down on online scalping activities using macros and, together with Samsung Lions, has been strengthening both online and offline preventive publicity campaigns. The Samsung Lions became the first of the 10 professional baseball teams this season to surpass one million spectators. As competition for securing tickets intensifies, the need to eradicate scalping has become even more pronounced.
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