4 K-Pop Idols Who Got Scammed Before Their Debut, But Still Found Success In The End

There are plenty of K-Pop idols who had to deal with unfortunate situations before they debuted, and some idols have gotten scammed before their debut. Despite this, a lot of idols didn’t let this stop them from reaching success. Here are 4 of these idols.

1. V (BTS)

When BTS’s V and his father got into a taxi to go sign V’s contract with BigHit Entertainment, they got scammed as the taxi driver overcharged them. Since V and his father aren’t from Seoul and weren’t familiar with the streets of Seoul, they didn’t know this.

I took a taxi with my dad and we ended up being scammed by the taxi driver. We didn’t know that we would have to go through three tunnels.

— V

While this was disheartening in the past, V and his father now view it as a fun memory!

2. IU

The List took a brief look at IU’s journey to becoming a singer and how tough it was. When IU was young, her family fell into debt, so she and her younger brother lived with their grandmother. While their grandmother did her best to provide for them, she could barely keep their stomachs full. IU then started pursuing her dream of becoming a singer, but she constantly got cut by companies she auditioned for.

She even once got financially scammed while trying to become a singer!

Despite all these hardships, IU never gave up and eventually found her way to LOEN Entertainment and became one of the biggest K-Pop solo artists!

3. Suga (BTS)

When Suga was young, he moved to Seoul to pursue his music dreams. Suga, however, didn’t have much money at the time and often had to pick between using whatever money he had on food or transportation.

Suga also sold songs at the time, but he got scammed often!

Suga had to work part-time jobs to support himself and to pay for his tuition fees. He got into an accident when he was a deliveryman and injured his shoulder, and doctors told him not to do anything that could strain it.

After this, Suga decided to quit being a trainee. However, Bang Si Hyuk, the head of BTS’s agency, told Suga that he would wait for his shoulder to heal. Not only that, but he paid for Suga’s tuition fees so that he didn’t have to worry about money! Suga ended up continuing being a trainee, and he debuted in BTS!

4. Mino (WINNER)

This happened after Mino made his debut in BoM, but before he debuted in WINNER. Mino debuted in a group called BoM in 2011. Mino, however, shared that the agency stole money from him. Mino had written the lyrics for 5 of BoM’s songs, but the agency scammed him of his credit and listed another person as the writer!

In my time with the agency, I didn’t even earn 1 penny. I wrote the lyrics to five songs but my name wasn’t even credited on the song, so I couldn’t file for royalties.

They told me, ‘This is common when you’re just starting off. We’ll give you credit next time.’”

— Mino

BoM disbanded in 2013, and Mino left the agency and soon found his way to YG Entertainment, where he debuted as a WINNER member!