[Reporter’s Notebook] Jeonse Fraud Is a Structural Problem... It's Time to Stop the Blame Game

"They foolishly made a contract with a swindler and hypocritically pretend to be victims. How can someone who was scammed ask the government to compensate for the damage?"

This was heard at a real estate agency near Sungui-dong, Michuhol-gu, Incheon, during a recent reporting visit regarding the jeonse fraud that shook the real estate market. Another real estate agent grumbled, "Because of the jeonse fraud, tenant demand has dropped." On online communities, many mocking posts such as "Why on earth do people fall for such scams?" and "Who pushed you to sign the contract?" were posted, but voices expressing concern for the victims were not loud.

Under Korean civil law, a jeonse contract is regarded as a private agreement between the buyer and the seller. However, it is questionable whether the entire responsibility can be placed solely on the victims in this case. It could be the responsibility of society as a whole for neglecting structural problems. Since 2020, the government has strengthened loan regulations related to apartment purchases but has taken no significant measures regarding jeonse loans. As a result, a peculiar structure was formed where landlords could use the jeonse loan funds borrowed by tenants for gap investment, leading to hundreds or thousands of cases of damage emerging nationwide, including in Hwagok-dong, Incheon, as well as Dongtan, Guri, and Busan.

In particular, most of the victims of this jeonse fraud are young adults who were pushed to the outskirts because they could not afford the expensive apartment prices and soaring housing prices in Seoul. For those who had no suitable place to live immediately, this contract was ultimately a 'decision for survival.' Moreover, most of the lease contracts at that time were made through real estate agents. The agents reassured tenants by presenting indemnity certificates and saying "there is no problem," and praised the landlords as wealthy individuals owning hundreds of houses. Was it really a simple 'foolish act' as those who point fingers claim?

No one in this world wants to be scammed. It is harsh to blame the victims for "being at fault" just because they failed to see that even the real estate agents were in cahoots with the swindlers. Instead of complaining that local housing prices have dropped or gossiping as if it is someone else's problem, it is time to join forces to prepare countermeasures and eradicate fraud so that such incidents do not happen again. After all, no one can be completely safe from fraud crimes.

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