Police have arrested a man in his 30s who bought up thousands of tickets to K-pop concerts, overseas artists' shows in South Korea and sports events, then resold them at steep markups. Investigators said the man earned well over a billion won from the scheme.
The Cyber Crime Investigation Unit 2 of the Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police Agency said on the 16th that it had arrested the man, identified only as A, on charges of obstruction of business and referred him to prosecutors.
A is accused of buying 8,967 tickets to popular concerts and sports events between September 2018 and April this year and reselling them at inflated prices.
Sales totaled about 2.4 billion won ($1.7 million), and police believe roughly two-thirds of that amount was profit for A.
Investigators found that A secured tickets in bulk using automated macro programs and accounts registered under the names of family members and relatives.
He also joined the country's largest group chat for scalped-ticket trading on social media, which was shut down earlier this year in a police investigation, and used ticket information and macro programs shared there.
A passed the tickets on by changing delivery addresses or transferring them online. He also handed over entry wristbands in person at venues.
In one case, A bought a ticket to a BTS concert at Jamsil Sports Complex in 2019 for 110,000 won and sold it for 3 million won. He also bought a ticket to a 2025 Seventeen fan meeting for 110,000 won and resold it for 1.8 million won.
He raised the price of a ticket to a 2024 football match between Team K League and Tottenham Hotspur from 400,000 won to 1.65 million won, and bought a ticket to Bruno Mars' 2023 concert in South Korea for 250,000 won before selling it for 1.2 million won. Some tickets carried markups of about 30 times the original price, investigators found.
A, who had held no regular job since graduating from university and lived off ticket scalping, used the proceeds to buy one apartment and two commercial properties in Gyeonggi Province, police found.
The apartment has already been sold. Police identified the two remaining commercial properties and bonds held in A's name, worth a combined 1.26 billion won, as criminal proceeds and secured a pre-indictment preservation order for forfeiture.
Investigators said A also tried to destroy evidence, reformatting his computer and mobile phone after seeing a news report in March that police had broken up a large ticket-scalping ring. He also shut down a business he had registered to make the scalping look like a legitimate operation.
Police are continuing to investigate illegal ticket trading, focusing on the group chats where A operated.
