Lee Hyo-sik is Finance Desk editor at The Korea Times. He manages finance-related stories on macroeconomics, banks, stocks, bonds, crypto etc. He is passionate about covering what's happening in Korea's financial industry and explaining it to both Korean and non-Korean readers. You can reach him at leehs@koreatimes.co.kr. Your insights and feedbacks are always appreciated.
Bogus online shopping malls thriving
By Lee Hyo-sik
A growing number of consumers are falling victim to scams involving bogus online shopping sites, prompting the police to launch an extensive investigation.
Fraudsters usually open shopping malls in cyberspace promoting that they sell running shoes, camping gear and imported luxury brand items at cheaper than market prices.
They lure Internet shoppers to send payment before the delivery of goods. But the swindlers do not mail the promised merchandise. They then close the websites and disappear with the money.
With such dubious schemes emerging as a serious social problem, police have decided to launch an investigation into three online shopping sites that milked millions of won from online consumers in recent days.
The Cyber Terror Response Center at the National Police Agency said investigators are currently looking into an Internet shopping mall called www.ebayOOOOOOOOO.com, whose operators cheated online shoppers by advertizing the site would sell Nike and other brand-name running shoes at lower than market prices.
The operators said the delivery would take a long time since the merchandise had to be shipped from overseas. They asked buyers to pay 120,000 won per pair in advance but never sent the promised goods. The site has since been closed.
About 40 consumers have so far reported that they were cheated, but police estimate that at least hundreds were victims of the scam.
“We have been receiving growing complaints from online shoppers that they did not get the goods they paid for. As a first step, we have selected three cases clearly suspected as involving fraud and asked district police stations to look into them and apprehend those responsible,” said an officer at the Cyber Terror Response Center.
The officer said it is difficult to estimate the size of the financial damage because there are so many victims.
“We think online shoppers collectively lost hundreds of millions of won in each case. Those who buy goods from online malls operated by individuals should exercise extra caution and double-check the sellers’ credibility.”
Police officers are also trying to locate the whereabouts of an Internet cafe operator who disappeared after taking money from online shoppers seeking to buy camping gear.
Investigators are pursuing an administrator of a website offering direct transactions between online shoppers. The suspect disappeared after taking money from consumers after falsely promising to deliver computer parts.