A (28), a fan of a boy group, failed to book tickets for a New Year concert and then found a post on X (formerly Twitter) saying "secured good seats." The seller told A to wire the money with about a 20% premium over face value (130,000 won). After A sent the money, the seller demanded another transfer for the absurd reason that A "did not add 'bonin' to the depositor's name."
Afterward, the seller repeatedly demanded additional transfers for various reasons such as "did not put double quotation marks (") between the names" and "the deadline has passed." A ultimately sent a total of 1.66 million won in four transfers but never received the ticket. Reporting to police, A said, "In hindsight it was a scam, but I was so eager to go to the concert that I didn't doubt it."
As popular year-end and New Year concerts pile up, scalping and "proxy ticketing," in which someone gets tickets on your behalf, are surging. In the process, scams preying on fans are also on the rise. Because brokers using macros (programs that rapidly book tickets by repeatedly accessing a booking site and clicking automatically) seize a large number of seats the moment sales open, ordinary fans are increasingly locked into paying premiums and relying on scalpers or proxy ticketing.
According to police and others on the 8th, a significant share of recent proxy ticketing scams use the "ID transfer" method. After a broker succeeds in booking tickets with a macro, they cancel the tickets during off-peak hours and simultaneously rebook the canceled tickets to the transferee's account.
In this process, there are frequent cases in which the broker asks the victim for the concert booking site ID and password, then disappears after repeatedly demanding transfers under pretexts such as "a security-related transfer fee is required" or "an authentication error occurred."
Calls for self-policing to avoid scalping and proxy ticketing have been constant, but many fans respond that it is "out of touch with reality." They say brokers using macros virtually monopolize the so-called "prime spots."
B (34), an office worker who paid a premium to attend an idol group concert, said, "For popular shows, it's almost impossible to get good seats through direct booking," adding, "I know it's not a legitimate method, but I didn't want to sit so far away that the idol looked like a 'matchstick,' so I bought a scalped ticket."
Online communities also have many accounts of proxy ticketing and scalping transactions, such as "I clicked the purchase button dozens of times, but the only thing left was the two characters for 'sold out'" and "I bought it at three times the price (on a secondhand transaction platform), but at least I have peace of mind."
This phenomenon is not limited to concerts. As macro use spreads in bookings for sports games and musicals, more individuals are outright buying macro programs.
C, an office worker in their 50s, said, "I kept failing to book Korea Series tickets, so I bought a macro program for 100,000 won just for my own use," adding, "Without the program, it's a system where an ordinary person simply can't succeed in booking."
The problem is that even when victims suffer losses from scalping transactions or proxy ticketing scams, the avenues for relief are limited. In the case of voice phishing, police (112), the Financial Supervisory Service, or a financial company call center can immediately place a "payment suspension" on the criminal's account used in the crime. The inability of the scammer to withdraw money from the account increases the chances of relief.
However, proxy ticketing or scalping transaction scams are categorized as general fraud, so payment suspension is possible only upon request from investigative authorities.
Experts say ticket sales platforms are effectively neglecting the macro problem. Lee Yun-ho, a professor in the Department of Police Administration at Dongguk University, said, "Earning revenue while turning a blind eye to abnormal transactions is unethical," adding, "It can be sufficiently blocked technically, and there needs to be a buffer to reduce consumer harm, such as involving intermediaries the way travel agencies sell airline tickets."