Personal Data Checks Snare Ticket Scalpers... Railway Tickets No Longer a Blind Spot for Crackdowns

Possible to Obtain Personal Information of Suspected Scalpers

Last year, Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail) and SR, the operator of the Suseo High-Speed Railway (SRT), uncovered more than 300 suspected cases of ticket scalping during the Lunar New Year and Chuseok holiday periods.

According to data on crackdowns on fraudulent ticket transactions that Democratic Party lawmaker Moon Jinseok, a member of the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, received from Korail and SR on the 15th, Korail detected 83 cases and SR 272 cases last year, for a total of 355 suspected scalping cases, which were all referred to the railway police and local police stations for investigation.

During last year’s Lunar New Year holidays, 207 cases (25 at Korail and 182 at SR) were referred for investigation, and during Chuseok, 148 cases (58 at Korail and 90 at SR) were referred. Compared with the 119 cases during the 2024 holidays (12 during Lunar New Year, with 2 at Korail and 10 at SR, and 107 during Chuseok, with 107 at Korail and 0 at SR), the figure nearly tripled in just one year. Considering that only 3 scalping-related cases were referred during the holiday periods in 2021 and 18 cases in 2023, sanctions on scalping posts have effectively been strengthened.

This is because, starting with last year’s Lunar New Year, an amendment to the Railroad Business Act passed the National Assembly. The core of the amendment is that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport can directly request personal information such as a person’s name, address, and mobile phone number from relevant agencies or organizations, including online secondhand trading platforms, if the person has violated, or is suspected of violating, the obligation to refrain from fraudulent ticket sales.

Institutions and organizations must provide the information requested by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport unless there is a legitimate reason not to. Before the law was amended, Korail and SR, which do not have direct enforcement authority, were in a situation where it was difficult for them to take active measures against ticket scalping.

In addition, Korail began operating a scalping tip-off channel in September 2023, and SR began doing so in October 2024, allowing anyone to report cases suspected of ticket scalping. Ahead of the Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays, each organization monitors scalping posts uploaded to secondhand trading platforms, checks the reports submitted through the scalping tip-off channels, and then refers the cases for investigation.

However, since railway tickets can currently be issued without a name, it is difficult to clearly determine whether a ticket was resold at a premium as part of a scalping transaction when the purchaser and the actual user are different. Therefore, each railway operator is reviewing additional measures, such as gradually reducing non-member (anonymous) ticket reservations.

Assemblyman Moon stressed, “Train ticket scalping, which causes major inconvenience ahead of the nation’s traditional holidays of Lunar New Year and Chuseok and undermines trust in public transportation, must be eradicated,” adding, “It is necessary to discuss strengthening the system, including granting Korail, SR and other related institutions enforcement authority to eliminate ticket scalping.”