Two Men in Their 20s Who Developed and Sold Macro Programs Also Arrested
A man in his 40s was arrested by the police for using a macro program to mass-purchase professional baseball game tickets and reselling them at a premium, making illicit profits amounting to hundreds of millions of won. During the investigation, two men in their 20s who developed and sold the macro program were also apprehended.
According to a report by Yonhap News on October 21, the Cyber Investigation Unit of the Daejeon Police Agency arrested these individuals. A macro is software that automates specific tasks, such as simple repetitions. It has become a problem as it is being misused to secure a large number of tickets on online reservation sites for concerts and sports events.
A man in his 40s was caught booking professional baseball tickets using a macro program at a PC cafe in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province. Photo by Daejeon Police Agency
The investigation revealed that Mr. A used a macro program that automatically inputs the number of people and seat coordinates, making a total of 10,881 ticket reservations over 5,254 attempts. Mr. A sold these tickets through online trading sites. In this process, he resold the tickets at up to 15 times the original price, making a total profit of 570 million won.
On March 22, the opening day of the professional baseball season, he sold 128 tickets in a single day, earning 15.27 million won. This means each ticket was sold for an average price exceeding 100,000 won. For the Hanwha Eagles home opening game on March 28, he sold a first-base couple seat ticket, originally priced at around 40,000 won, for 400,000 won.
Since July, the police have been intensively cracking down on scalping using macro programs. They discovered a suspicious post about ticket scalping on an online community and launched an investigation. On July 25, Mr. A was caught in the act at a PC cafe in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, using a macro program to book tickets on three computers simultaneously.
A man in his 40s was caught booking professional baseball tickets using a macro program at a PC cafe in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province. Photo by Daejeon Police Agency
He reportedly told the police, "I committed the crime to earn living expenses, and I downloaded the macro program from the internet."
Mr. B and Mr. C are suspected of earning 86 million won by selling various macro programs for ticket scalping, ranging from 40,000 won to 120,000 won for premium versions. They developed and produced macro programs that, in addition to basic reservation functions, included features such as automatic purchase of canceled tickets and the ability to apply to multiple reservation sites. They sold the macro program to 973 people a total of 1,488 times.
The police arrested those who developed, produced, and distributed macro programs for ticket scalping and investigated the abuse of the "pre-sale system" operated by professional baseball teams for fans, which was found to be exploited for scalping.
The police stated, "To create a healthy viewing environment, we will thoroughly track and strictly respond to the production, distribution, and use of macro programs and scalping activities."
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