Police have arrested a professional ticket scalper who used macro programs to snap up concert tickets in bulk and resold 2.4 billion won ($1.7 million) worth of them over eight years. Also caught in the sweep was a scalper who booked more than 6,000 professional baseball tickets and pocketed about 400 million won in illicit gains.
The National Investigation Headquarters of the Korean National Police Agency said on the 20th that a six-month crackdown on macro-assisted ticket scalping from March 3 through Aug. 31 produced 126 cases and 157 arrests, two of them detained. Police secured pre-indictment confiscation and forfeiture orders covering about 2 billion won in criminal proceeds.
By category, cases involving concert and other performance tickets accounted for the largest share with 73 people, followed by sports tickets such as professional baseball with 64, transportation tickets with 11 and other categories with nine. By age, suspects in their 30s were the most numerous at 68, or 43.3%, followed by 53 in their 20s at 33.8% and 31 in their 40s at 19.7%.
The Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police Agency detained a scalper who resold 2.4 billion won worth of concert tickets over eight years and obtained a pre-indictment forfeiture order covering about 1.2 billion won in proceeds. The Ulsan Metropolitan Police Agency detained a scalper who used macro programs and other people's accounts to bulk-buy performance tickets and resold 800 million won worth over 11 months, freezing about 400 million won. The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency arrested 35 people including a scalper who booked 6,019 professional baseball and performance tickets and resold them at a markup for about 390 million won in illicit gains.
Scalping of high-speed rail tickets ahead of the Chuseok holiday was also uncovered. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency arrested scalpers who used macro programs to bulk-buy KTX and SRT tickets and resold more than 4,000 of them over one year and seven months.
Police are stepping up enforcement in line with revised versions of the Performance Act and the National Sports Promotion Act, which took effect on Aug. 28 and broadened the scope of penalties for ticket scalping. The special crackdown will continue through Oct. 31, with a focus on scalping of rail tickets during the Chuseok holiday.
"Mass booking through macro programs and the resale of tickets strips the public of a fair chance to buy," said Hong Seok-ki, head of the National Investigation Headquarters. "Ahead of Chuseok, we will respond sternly to ticket scalping, including rail tickets, and thoroughly trace criminal proceeds."
