London holiday scam fools Korean tourists

On the left is a photo of a room at a guesthouse in Westminster, London, taken and posted by a victim of a booking scam. The victim, Jung Youn-hee, organized a group of 15 people to stay at the house. The map on the right identifies the location of the guesthouse in Westminster, London. The location was advertised by the hosts. / Courtesy of Jung Youn-hee

Victims of booking fraud organize to catch proprietors

By You Soo-sun

Lee Myeong-hui, 47, never thought she would be swindled in a booking scam. After making a full payment of 2.09 million won ($1,856) for accommodation in London, she was no longer able to reach her hosts. She soon discovered she wasn’t the only one ― she found 14 others scammed by the same hosts running a guesthouse in downtown London.

The 15 victims claim they have been conned out of over 10 million won. They believe there are more such incidents, and expect them to increase as the hosts continue to advertise their lodgings online. The fraudsters, identified by their surnames Kim and Cho, are believed to be a Korean couple in their mid-50s who own a number of properties in Westminster, London.

Most victims lost contact with the couple soon after they made payment. On rare occasions they managed to reach the couple ― either by threatening to file a police report or post on blogs or by reaching out to them with a different phone number. But again they would go out of reach.

“At first everything seemed fine. We exchanged texts for weeks after I booked the place. It was around early April the hosts stopped responding,”Lee said. She chose the guesthouse as it was one of their properties in Greycoat Place, Westminster, to spend her summer holidays with a group of 10 friends.

While she felt bad about losing the money for the whole group, the experience has taken a far worse emotional toll on her. “I felt so stupid. I kept blaming myself for letting this happen.”

Lee said she was not able to sleep for two months. “I would wake up in the middle of the night infuriated, and write emails to the fraudster.”

Yang Ja-hyun, 29, made a reservation with the couple early this year for the upcoming Chuseok holiday in October, one of the busiest times of the year here. “I thought it a little suspicious because they demanded full payment from the get-go. But they lured me by saying respected people like conglomerates’ employees and famous football players often stay at their place,”she said. By May, she lost contact with them.

It was a trip she had planned for her parents. She paid 1.1 million won of which she received 300,000 won back after she contacted the fraudsters through a friend’s phone, pretending to be a would-be booker. She has not been able to locate them since.

“It’s deplorable, especially considering the fact they are fellow Koreans living abroad,” Yang said. “They think they can get away with duping so many people just because they live abroad. I intend to fight them and hope this won’t happen again.”

Unlike most victims, Jung Youn-hee, 26, did not suffer any financial loss. But it was enough to motivate her to create a blog about the experience, assembling victims of the same crime.

They maintain close contact, venting to each other about the incident and sharing information about the hosts. Some have individually reported to their local police in Gangseo and Yeongdeungpo districts in Seoul and Miryang in South Gyeongsang Province.

“I still remember shaking in fear on my way back to Korea. And even when I came back, I spent months in anger, frustrated about what had happened," Jung said. “I was going to let this go, but when I found out I wasn’t the only one, I had to do something."