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| K-pop girl group Oh My Girl performs during "K-Culture Night" at Busan Cinema Center in Busan's Haeundae District, April 5. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
By Ko Dong-hwan
A local court recently handed down a five-year prison term to a 25-year-old man for defrauding K-pop fans of money by saying he would give them tickets to concerts that he could not attend.
The man, whose name was not disclosed, took a total of 230 million won ($174,000) from September 2021 to June 2022 from teenagers and those in their early 20s who were looking for tickets for K-pop concerts, according to the Seoul Central District Court, Thursday.
He told them he had tickets to concerts or fan meetings but could not go and would thus sell the tickets to them. He found the victims on Twitter.
The man targeted those with little social experience, including minors or those just out of high school, and abused their desperation for tickets, the court said.
It is alleged that he also demanded some victims, who were minors, provide sexual services in exchange for the tickets.
"This kind of crime not only causes financial damage to individuals but also creates distrust in online trading which is based on exchanges between strangers," the court said.
"We handed him the jail sentence considering he had previous convictions for similar fraud cases and he started to commit this crime from the day he was released from prison for the previous offense."
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