"Gift Cards Cheap, First Come First Served" Sold for Billions on Secondhand Market Then Disappeared

Inducing Purchases by Selling Department Store Gift Certificates at a Discount
Beware of Scams if Selling Price Is Significantly Lower Than Face Value

Recently, as cases of fraud on secondhand trading platforms have been occurring one after another, a man who deceived victims by claiming to sell department store gift certificates at a discount and pocketed 170 million won was sentenced to two years in prison.

According to the legal community on the 1st, on the 19th of last month, Judge Yang Jin-ho of the Criminal Division 23 at the Seoul Central District Court sentenced A (30) to two years in prison on charges of fraud. He was also ordered to compensate 10 victims who filed claims a total of about 29.5 million won obtained through fraud.

A is accused of committing fraud on the online secondhand trading platform Danggeun Market from October 7 to 28 last year, obtaining a total of 170 million won from 22 people. It was confirmed that he deceived victims by posting messages stating "selling department store gift certificates at a discount."

The court stated, "A repeatedly committed similar crimes in a short period, and most of the damages have not been recovered," adding, "Considering that A had previously received a suspended prison sentence for violent crimes before this incident, the sentence was determined."

Meanwhile, as gift certificate trading frauds have been rampant, Danggeun Market advised that there is a high possibility of being scammed when trading department store gift certificates or mobile gifticons online and recommended using face-to-face direct transactions.

If someone sells gift certificates at prices much lower than the face value and urges prepayment by promising to send them in the order of payment, you should suspect fraud as they may disappear after receiving the payment.

Also, caution is needed if the seller's existing items for sale are all gift certificates or if the account number is split up to prevent the secondhand trading system from recognizing it as a fraudulent account.

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