Scams Including Mukti, No-Show, and Moon-sang... The Many Faces of Secondhand Transactions

Active Transactions After COVID-19
Incidents and Accidents Also Continue Unabated

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghoon Jeong] #University student Lim Ye-eun (23) used a secondhand trading platform a few years ago to buy goods related to the idol group EXO. The seller wanted to ship the item by courier, so Lim transferred the money to the seller’s account and even shared her contact information. However, the seller, who said they would send the tracking number, suddenly cut off contact. The post was deleted, and the profile was reset. Although the loss was about 50,000 won, Lim visited the police station out of frustration. But when she was told she had to appear at the police station to write a statement, she ultimately gave up on reporting the incident. Lim said, “It was inconvenient, but I was also afraid of the unfamiliar experience of having to appear at the police station.”

Secondhand trading has become a significant part of consumption, especially among the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z, born between the 1980s and 2000s). The prejudice of “how can you use something someone else has used?” is now a thing of the past, and it functions as a market that broadens consumer choices. Recently, transactions have been made not only for everyday items such as clothes, books, and daily necessities but also for luxury goods worth millions of won. In particular, the ‘resell tech’ trend, where limited edition products are purchased and sold for a profit, has brought attention to the secondhand market. However, incidents such as fraud and theft continue to occur in the secondhand market, which mainly involves face-to-face transactions or bank transfers.

According to the police on the 29th, at around 5 a.m. on the 20th, near the main gate of Hongik University in Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, a man approached a victim pretending to buy an Omega wristwatch worth about 9 million won and fled wearing the watch. The man met the victim in the early morning and asked, “Can I try on the watch once?” After getting permission, the suspect suddenly changed his demeanor and fled, taking even the warranty certificate the victim had brought. The police are currently tracking the suspect.

New types of financial fraud using cultural gift certificates have also been notable. A university student, Kim, sold a cultural gift certificate to person A. However, A deceived person B by claiming to sell the certificate to B, prompting B to transfer money to Kim. Taking advantage of the time lag in the money transfer, A stole the gift certificate. A kept the certificate, Kim had the certificate, and B was defrauded of money. Later, B, who had deposited the money, reported Kim’s account as a fraudulent account, causing the account to be suspended. As a result, Kim was unable to conduct various payments and transfers for a while, suffering difficulties in banking transactions.

According to data submitted by the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee member Yoo Dong-soo of the Democratic Party of Korea, the number of reported secondhand trading fraud cases to the police reached 123,168 last year, marking an all-time high. This is the first time the number of cases has exceeded 100,000. The number of fraud cases increased nearly twofold from 45,877 in 2014 to 89,797 in 2019. The number of cases had been increasing by about 15,000 annually but surged by more than 30,000 last year compared to the previous year during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is attributed to the activation of mobile secondhand trading platforms. The amount of damages also approached 90 billion won, totaling 89.7 billion won as of the end of last year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.