A Fake K-Pop Girl Group Just Had Stans On Social Media Fooled For Days

The coronavirus lockdown has everyone doing crazy things.
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Alicia Valley
Alicia Valley

Heard talk about an upcoming K-Pop girl group called 6IRLY? Don’t look forward to their debut just yet. While the group was all over Twitter for days, eagle-eyed Purplebeck stan Sophi (@95vore on Twitter) quickly realized something was amiss.

On March 16, a new account surfaced on Twitter claiming to be the official source for 6IRLFRIEND, a new sexy concept girl group debuting in 2020 from a company called JCM Entertainment.

The first reason this supposed new group caught attention was its name, which bore a very high similarity to GFRIEND. Straight away, Korean and international Buddies flocked to the comments to debate whether it should be considered a problem.

Later, the group’s name changed to 6IRLY, seemingly to avoid the comparisons. Not long after the account was set up, it began introducing the group’s “members”. First was Chae-Jin, the alleged lead vocal and visual. Next was, Inha, who was said to be the 25-year-old leader and main rapper.

Screenshot courtesy of @95vore on Twitter.

Within hours, the posts were racking up hundreds of likes, and K-Pop stans on Twitter were already beginning to set up accounts dedicated to posting the members’ pictures.

But from the moment Sophi (@95vore) saw the @6IRLY_twt account, they had their doubts about the authenticity of the group for several reasons. For one, not only did the account tweet in broken English, it also used very informal and very basic Korean.

Screenshot courtesy of @95vore on Twitter.

Plus, the member profiles looked like something straight from a K-Pop profile website. While most of the photos didn’t appear on a reverse Google image search, Sophi kept digging. They soon discovered that while the company, JCM Entertainment, was real, it was no longer active. The group JCM Entertainment was working on, 4L, disbanded due to one of the member’s discomfort with the concept.

Screenshot courtesy of @95vore on Twitter.

Then, when member Inha was announced, everything started to crumble. It didn’t take long for someone to find the Instagram account the picture really came from—and the person in question was definitely not a trainee.

Screenshot courtesy of @95vore on Twitter.

Sophi posted their findings on Twitter just a day or two after the 6IRLY Twitter account was set up. But then, the account had already reached 2,000 followers and spawned several fan accounts. Of course, after the exposé, the account owner had to come clean.

In perfect English, @6IRLY_twt announced that the rumors were true—the group was, in fact, fake. But, they said they had a good reason for fooling everyone. It looks like they were planning to get the account to a high follower count, then use it to promote their favorite nugu groups, such as DAYDREAM.

Screenshot courtesy of @95vore on Twitter.

Unsurprisingly, early “fans” of the group were not happy. The @6IRLY_twt account has since been deactivated.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Back in 2016, a group called Lion Girls garnered everyone’s attention—including news sites—before it was exposed as a hoax. Then, back in 2019, rumors circulated that Purplebeck was also a scam group, though those accusations turned out to be false.

Given how COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) lockdowns across the world have everyone going stir crazy, it’s not all that surprising that someone got bored enough to make a fake group! Read Sophi’s full thread on the exposé here:

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