After a massive 33.7 million cases of personal data were leaked at Coupang, the No. 1 e-commerce company in Korea, a series of Naver cafes touting class-action lawsuits have sprung up. However, many of them turned out to be existing cafes on entirely different topics that simply changed their signboards. Some worry they may be exploiting the anxiety of personal data leak victims to inflate their membership.
◇ A plastic surgery cafe turns into a Coupang lawsuit community
As of 9 a.m. on the 2nd, there are five cafes that front "Coupang personal data leak class-action lawsuit" with more than 10,000 members. Among them, the largest, Cafe A, has surpassed 130,000 members.
But Cafe A had shared plastic surgery information since it opened in Aug. 2007 until the 30th of last month. Its membership topped 100,000 on Jan. 2, 2010, and most of its previous posts are about plastic surgery, cosmetics, and beauty care. Only at 11:02 p.m. on the 1st did the cafe post a new notice saying "Preparing a class-action lawsuit at the Coupang class-action cafe" and change its name.
Cafe B, the second largest by membership, was the same. It has about 105,000 members, but when it was first created in 2017, it shared information about the famous Japanese comic "Yu-Gi-Oh." It also changed its name to a class-action-related title on the 30th of last month. Of the more than 430,000 accumulated posts so far, only about 37,000 are actually related to the class action. More than 90% of the posts are about Yu-Gi-Oh.
Cafe C, with about 52,000 members, has a history of changing industries several times since its launch in 2006, including history, kid models, photographer hiring, cosplay hiring, side dish transactions, studios, self-employed, and private tutoring hiring. Cafe D, with about 69,000 members, also opened in 2017 as a game-related cafe.
These cafes gathered their existing posts into a single board and placed it at the very bottom of the list, making it hard for new members to easily check past operations.
The question is whether these cafes actually intend to pursue a class-action lawsuit against Coupang. The operators all offer only broad explanations like "in contact with a law firm" and "preparing a class action." There is no guidance on which law firm is participating or what the specific procedures are.
A member of Cafe B wrote under a post titled "Please at least verify the operators' nationality," saying, "Provide proper verification and clarify right and wrong regarding the class action." In a notice, the operators replied, "The sole purpose of the cafe is 'Coupang victim relief,' and we will show our sincerity through our actions going forward."
◇ Potential misuse of "Coupang class action" for marketing
Some suspect a tactic of rapidly boosting membership by seizing on Coupang's personal data leak. The idea is that they may be exploiting the tendency of people who want to join the class action to flock to larger cafes. On Naver cafes, members are not automatically removed after joining even if they have no activity history.
A public relations (PR) industry official said, "It's common to change a cafe's signboard to a popular keyword or major social incident to attract members."
Cafes with large memberships are traded. That's because they can generate profit through banner ads or business promotions. On the secondhand trading platform Bungaejangter, there is even a post offering to sell a Naver cafe with about 87,000 members for 10 million won.
If you want to join a class action, it may be better to sign up for a cafe or social media (SNS) run directly by a law firm. A managing attorney at a law firm preparing a class-action suit against Coupang said, "Just joining a cafe does not mean you can participate in a class action, so you need to check which places are actually proceeding with class-action procedures."