KORAIL Detects 26 Cases of Illegal Ticket Scalping During Lunar New Year and Requests Investigation

Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) announced on March 4 that it had detected 26 cases of illegal ticket scalping during the recent Lunar New Year holiday and requested investigations by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the National Police Agency.

Previously, KORAIL operated an "illegal ticket reporting center" through its mobile app "KORAIL Talk" and the KORAIL website, where it detected 19 cases. In addition, seven cases were detected using the newly introduced "mystery shopper" method. All individuals involved in the detected scalping transactions had their memberships immediately revoked.

The mystery shopper method involves employees posing as buyers to approach and identify ticket scalpers. Through this approach, KORAIL detected four cases of resale at inflated prices, two cases of brokering services inducing proxy purchases, and one case of ticket fraud.

Among these, KORAIL emphasized that in one case, a seller posted fake ticket sales on an online secondhand trading platform, induced the buyer to transfer money, and then disappeared. This seller was reported to the police for fraud on February 23.

In particular, by having employees pose directly as buyers, the "mystery shopper (undercover inspector)" method led to the identification of four cases of resale at inflated prices, two cases of brokering services inducing proxy purchases, and one case of ticket fraud.

There was also a case uncovered in which public discount benefits were abused. A national merit recipient abused their 50% ticket discount benefit and advance reservation rights to secure tickets and then attempted to resell them, leading to detection.

KORAIL imposed an additional fare equivalent to ten times the train fare on customers who purchased and used discounted tickets through in-train inspections, and notified the relevant authorities of the seller on February 27.

Minseong Lee, Head of Customer Marketing at KORAIL, stated, "Illegal ticket scalping can lead to secondary damages such as fraud, so special caution is required," adding, "KORAIL will respond firmly by revoking the memberships of detected scalpers and requesting investigations."

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