If Leaked, 'National Family Ruin Day'... 4.6 Million Men Who Bought Sex in 'X File'

Arrest of Gang Illegally Distributing Personal Data of Men Who Purchased Sex
4.6 Million Personal Records... Including Entertainment Venue Usage History
Also Contains Sexual Preferences, Troublemaker Customers, and Police Awareness Status

A mobile app operation group that illegally collected and utilized 51 million pieces of personal information of men who purchase sex, managed by thousands of prostitution establishments nationwide, was caught by the police.

The group is suspected of illegally collecting and sharing personal information of men who purchase sex, having about 6,400 prostitution establishment owners nationwide as members for approximately two years, and earning over 1.8 billion KRW in profits under the name of usage fees.

It was also investigated that so-called 'entertainment detectives,' who inform about the records of visits to prostitution establishments by lovers or spouses, used Mr. A's group's app.
[Photo by Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency]

The app contained 4.6 million phone numbers.

The Life Safety Division of the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency announced on the 22nd that they arrested three people including A (in his 40s) on charges of violating the Personal Information Protection Act and the Act on the Punishment of Acts of Arranging Sexual Traffic, and booked 12 others without detention, forwarding the case to the prosecution.

The app displayed information such as past records of men who purchased sex visiting prostitution establishments, whether they were difficult customers or police officers, and their sexual preferences.

The moment the app was installed, personal information such as phone numbers and memos stored on the owners’ mobile phones was automatically collected into a specific database through the app, sharing information that each establishment had identified.

It was investigated that Mr. A created the mobile app based on the fact that these owners only accepted customers who had no records of visiting other establishments or who had undergone identity verification procedures to avoid police crackdowns.

The app also had a phone number lookup function, and it was reported that 'entertainment detectives' who claimed they could check the prostitution establishment visits of lovers or spouses used it to promote their services and gain unfair profits.

App usage screen [Photo by Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency]

There was also a case where a voice phishing suspect used this app to look up personal information of a specific person and threatened to expose their sex purchasing to those around them. They received the app installation link from Mr. A via Telegram and paid a monthly usage fee of 100,000 KRW to use it.

Mr. A reportedly enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle with monthly earnings of up to 300 million KRW by charging 100,000 KRW per month per owner using the app. After his accomplices were first arrested, he fled, and even while wanted, he continued to operate the app by only changing its name and using burner phones and bank accounts until he was caught in March this year.

The police plan to seize and confiscate 1.84 billion KRW of criminal proceeds before prosecution and continue investigations into entertainment detectives and others involved.

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