Hunting down online haters a lucrative business

By Park Si-soo

Hunting down online haters has become a profitable business.

Nearly 20 companies are offering the service across the country. Their clients include celebrities who have fought anonymous online villains.

On request, these companies launch real-time monitoring of major portals and community websites using self-developed software, automatically capturing comments considered offensive and malicious.

Next step is identifying the login IDs of writers and their IP addresses, which then end up with police for investigation.

If you are an online hater and still feel comfortable sticking with the belief you won't be caught, be prepared for the worst-case scenario ― seven out of 10 have been busted.