Former LPG member Kim Seoyeon confessed to being a victim of a jeonse rental scam, drawing sympathy.
On the 11th, the "Robubu" channel uploaded a video titled "How we overcome jeonse rental scams | a victim of a jeonse rental scam speaks directly about why she had no choice but to fall for it."
That day, Robin and Kim Seoyeon visited the auctioned house and the house where the scam occurred. Kim Seoyeon explained, "There are a lot of documents there, so many things fly to GREE, so I'm going to check them," and added, "There might be things there. There could be mail telling us to deposit some amount of money, so I'm going to go and take a look."
Kim Seoyeon said, "What people misunderstand is that the house I'm living in now was not scammed. The house we live in is our newlywed home, and the house that was scammed is the one I lived in alone. That place is actually empty, but we're still paying back the loan and that's the situation. And I haven't emptied all my belongings from the house yet. If we take out a loan to settle the remaining balance, I think we'll have to empty the house," she said.
Arriving at the scammed house, Kim Seoyeon said, "The view is pretty and it's fine. This is the house where we were victimized by a jeonse rental scam; it's a three-room place with two bathrooms, so it's decent. Actually, my parents said they'd move in here, but because of loan issues, we might have to buy it and sell it. It's a bit disappointing. I wish someone close could move in here," expressing regret. She said they were forced into a situation where they had to buy the house to cover the scammed deposit.
Kim Seoyeon said, "There are cases where people genuinely don't know and get scammed, but because they attacked deliberately, it seemed impossible to avoid. First, I am indeed confirmed as a victim of a jeonse rental scam. Back then it was all the rage, right? When the jeonse scams were erupting. This was one of the early cases. They were called 'villa king' and 'construction king.' Among the people scammed by that construction king, some ended up in bad situations, which led to laws and such. There were many protests asking for help, so we could use the right of first refusal. When someone becomes a victim of a jeonse rental scam, they are given the right to be the first to purchase at the highest successful auction bid. The government helps with that. And you can transfer the house to LH. Then LH buys the property through auction and supports scam victims to buy it cheaply," she said.
Robin clarified, "Actually, weren't there a lot of those cases? People say the victims were stupid and didn't think properly, so they got scammed. I think I've seen a few like this. But after hearing the story, it's not like that. They plan the scheme in too much detail." Kim Seoyeon said, "In the beginning, many people told me, 'You should have looked into it properly.' When it first erupted, I was anxious too. Actually, this house had a loan on it. A house with debt. Isn't that scary? Then you can't get deposit insurance. I went with my mother because I was scared and asked, 'Isn't this a risky house? How can a three-room place be priced like this?' The real estate agent said, 'Don't worry. This owner is famous in this neighborhood for owning several villas. He took out a 100 million won deposit insurance, so even if the jeonse deposit can't be returned, he'll guarantee it.' So we asked for a special contract, and the real estate agent wrote a contract saying they would guarantee it," she said.
She continued, "They even showed an insurance certificate. It said 100 million. So we thought it would be fine and moved in. But when it collapsed, we found that the 100 million deposit insurance was held by the real estate agency. It wasn't 100 million guaranteed per house; the 100 million was the money to be used when all the incidents erupted. So that 100 million was divided among our entire building. But they wouldn't even pay that. They were in the same gang. (The real estate agency) was one group," she said, adding shock.
Moreover, she said, "The owner who was said to be rich turned out to be what you might call homeless? He was economically struggling and had a proxy bank account. It was like a figurehead owner; he bought the ID card for about 2 million won. That also came out through the investigation. It was a set-up. At first, when I moved in, I was anxious. The house was so nice, why was it so cheap? We thought they'd move out in two years, so it would be fine. But it collapsed after a year and a half. I heard jeonse rental scams most often collapse after three years," she said.
Kim Seoyeon said, "At first, some people told me not to sue. They said to look into it carefully and resolve it, why rush. A building countermeasure meeting was held. What happened to me first was that it was my birthday. I went to buy birthday supplies to throw a birthday party, and there were notices on the elevator saying it looked like a scam victim's house. The real estate agency contacted me, and at first they answered. But realizing they were all in on it, I was the first to report it. As a result, we were confirmed as victims fairly quickly. It was just pure jeonse scam. That person even sent messages saying they would repay the money if they were released, asking to be let out. But if we withdraw the complaint, they said they couldn't arrest that person for the same thing. It exploited the psychology of people who wanted their money back. Anyway, we can't get our deposit back. Since the scammer is in prison and we can't get the deposit, it seems like they are saying, 'If you want your deposit, release me,'" she explained.
She continued, "We were judged victims of the jeonse scam, and four years later the first auction was held and went unsold, the second auction went unsold, and it was sold on the third attempt. Because we bought it at the lowest price, there were comments saying we weren't victims and that we had profited. But that's not true: I am a confirmed victim and the government recognized me as a victim. We are third in ranking because the house had a loan. So you can assume we won't get most of the money back. There is a highest-priority repayment amount. It doesn't give us zero; after the auction is fully settled, there's an amount paid about a month later. I can only get that from the deposit. But we pursue auction to fill the deposit amount by buying the house cheaply at auction. For example, if the deposit was 100 million and we couldn't get that deposit, and we purchased the house at auction for 100 million, then you add 100 million to 100 million. Without that money, auctions are actually difficult. To minimize losses, I chose the auction route and used the right of first refusal; a bidder came and with that money I succeeded in the bid," she said.
She said, "You can think of it as trying to reduce the deficit. That doesn't mean I'm not a victim. People say, 'She's not a victim, she made money.' Comments like 'I'm so glad' are nice, but many people say, 'She laughed even though she was scammed.' This case happened a long time ago. It's been four years, and it's been wrapped up. I suffered a lot mentally and worried a lot over nearly four years. But I couldn't cry about being a victim of a jeonse scam the whole time, so I worked hard. There were many other bad things layered on top, but what can you do. You have to resolve it and move forward. I couldn't just collapse," she said.
She added, "It's not over yet. We have to raise money to buy this place. But because we became homeowners, there's a loan program that gives loans to jeonse scam victims, and it supports people without houses. But since I now own a house, I can't get that support. We have to move back here and live. But this house is much nicer and fully furnished, and we can't move into that one. When we tried to get a loan, we were told we must sell the house we're living in within three years. Alternatively, if we pay off the money borrowed from the housing mortgage loan within three years, it's fine. If we can't pay within three years, we have to sell our house. Because of that, my head is still in a mess. I'm not organized yet, so I don't know if people will understand what I'm explaining," she said, conveying confusion.
She continued, "I went to the court so many times and had to get so many documents. It was hard. I cried a lot after being scammed. But I seem to recover quickly. After being scammed once, when something hard happened recently, I didn't cry. I swore. I cursed. I said, 'Why are you doing this to me?' and after about a week, I thought, what can I do? I'll try and do it again. I feel stronger. After a few big incidents like that, I thought, 'I survived then and I'm living now; can I not endure this? I'll live harder. I'm angry, but what can I do? If I overcome it, good things will come,'" she said.
Meanwhile, French-born broadcaster Robin Deiana and former LPG member Kim Seoyeon married in May last year. The couple learned they were pregnant three days after being diagnosed with infertility and received many congratulations, but less than two weeks after announcing the pregnancy they shared the sad news of a missed miscarriage.
[photo] Robubu
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