Total Damages Amount to Approximately 107 Million Won
As singer G-Dragon's world tour concert in Hong Kong approaches, there have been increasing reports of ticket scams and illegal ticket resales in the area.
According to Hong Kong Ming Pao and Sing Tao Daily on August 7, more than 30 reports of ticket fraud related to G-Dragon's concert scheduled for August 8 to 10 at the AsiaWorld-Arena in Hong Kong have been filed with the Hong Kong police. The total amount of damages has reached 610,000 Hong Kong dollars (approximately 107.77 million won).
Investigations revealed that victims contacted sellers after seeing ticket sale posts on social networking services (SNS) such as Facebook, and were deceived into making additional transfers after scammers claimed that a further deposit was required. Some victims suffered losses of up to 180,000 Hong Kong dollars (approximately 31.8 million won) in this process.
This concert marks G-Dragon's first performance in Hong Kong in eight years, and tickets sold out rapidly as soon as sales began. However, illegal ticket resales also surged at the same time, with tickets being sold at two to five times the original price. Ming Pao reported that on the last day of the concert, a VVIP seat appeared on the resale market for 120,000 Hong Kong dollars (approximately 21 million won), adding that it was a "crazy price."
A similar situation occurred in Taiwan. Previously in Taiwan, a scalper was caught after purchasing a large quantity of G-Dragon concert tickets and reselling them at high prices, making a total of 20 million Taiwan dollars (approximately 900 million won). The scalpers sold tickets originally priced at 8,980 Taiwan dollars (approximately 420,000 won) for at least 55,000 Taiwan dollars (approximately 2.58 million won). As the controversy grew, Taiwanese authorities launched an investigation into the incident.
Meanwhile, G-Dragon has been meeting fans around the world with his world tour "Ubermensch," which began with a performance at Tokyo Dome in Japan in May.
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