Woman Arrested After Scamming Almost ₩500 Million KRW From K-Pop Fans

A woman in her 20’s was arrested after scamming fans of top idols, such as BTS, EXO, and Wanna One from over 200 fans, totaling almost ₩500 million KRW ($411,475 USD).

The Seoul Mapo Police announced on August 15 that they arrested her on charges of fraud, and plan to send her case to prosecution on August 16 for questioning.

The woman, known as “Maydani” on Twitter, posted messages on her account between July 12, 2018 to March 16, 2019 saying she would act as an agent for purchasing concert tickets for idol groups, both in Korea and overseas. Using an open chatroom as her form of communication, she received a total of ₩489 million KRW ($402,422 USD) from 282 customers, but police believe there may be as many as 400 victims of her scam.

According to the police, the woman posed as 2 Chinese women and used their bank account information to receive the funds. The police presumed that the owner of the account was Chinese, but upon analysis of her resident registration card and WeChat messages, it was determined she is Korean. The 2 women whose bank accounts she used are also under investigation for conspiring with her.

“Maydani” has denied the accusations, stating that she did actually sell tickets and not just scam.

I admit that I did receive the money as a deposit. But I actually did sell the tickets, or I refunded the money to some purchasers.

— “Maydani”