Gyeongnam Province Detects 3 Cases of Fraudulent Gift Certificate Distribution

Utilization of Payment System Improvements and Suspicious Transaction Extraction Programs

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Saeyan] Gyeongnam Province plans to cancel the registration of three merchants following the crackdown on the fraudulent distribution of Gyeongnam Love Gift Certificates conducted in March.

The final confirmed cases of fraudulent distribution through this crackdown involved 'payments made under the representative's own name' (self-payment) and 'operation in restricted business sectors.'

Most self-payments were small, one-time transactions, often tests to verify whether Zero Pay payments were possible. There was only one case of operation in a restricted business sector.

The province decided to cancel the registration of two merchants whose self-payment amounts and frequency exceeded small, one-time transactions, and one merchant operating in a restricted business sector.

For the remaining self-payment cases, the province will recover the gift certificate discount subsidies by guiding merchants on how to cancel payments after clarifying the causes of occurrence.

In cases where payment cancellation is inevitably impossible, the province plans to recover the discount subsidies through bill payment methods.

Additionally, to fundamentally block self-payments, from 0:00 on May 17, the system was improved so that payments cannot be made if the merchant's and payer's names and dates of birth match or if their mobile phone numbers match.

Furthermore, the province plans to systematically manage Gyeongnam Love Gift Certificate merchants to prevent any further occurrences of operation in restricted business sectors.