Ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, illegal train ticket booking using automated macro programs is rampant, with "consumer-grade macros" and so-called "queue-jumping links" now being traded online for use by ordinary consumers, a Seoul Economic Daily investigation has found.
Macros, once considered the exclusive tool of professional scalpers, are now spreading in forms accessible to anyone, raising concerns that ticket booking manipulation is becoming increasingly sophisticated.
According to the Seoul Economic Daily's reporting on Saturday, dozens of posts selling macros for train tickets and concert bookings have appeared on platforms including X (formerly Twitter), creative content platform Postype, and freelance marketplace Kmong. Labeled as "beginner-friendly" or "consumer-grade," these macros are characterized by their ease of use, with instruction manuals enabling ordinary users to operate them without difficulty.
Sellers are pricing these tools between 5,000 won and 30,000 won ($3.60 to $22), actively promoting claims such as "fastest ticketing possible" and "many success stories." While scalpers previously used macros to bulk-purchase tickets for resale, the practice has evolved into providing "manuals" that enable ordinary consumers to engage in illegal booking methods.
When a Seoul Economic Daily reporter purchased a macro for concert booking sites from a seller advertising it as "usable even by beginners," files and instructions were immediately delivered. The files contained programs that automatically click the booking button at the exact opening time for rapid access, as well as programs that automate the entry of security CAPTCHA codes displayed on booking pages. The instructions listed specific conditions, such as needing to lower browser specifications and activating the program one minute to 20 seconds before booking opens. When asked whether a macro for Lunar New Year train cancellation tickets was available, the seller replied that "custom orders are possible" and demanded 300,000 won ($218).
Beyond macros, "queue-jumping links" are also being actively traded on various social media platforms. Accessing these links allows users to bypass waiting queues and directly enter booking pages to secure seats. Also called "direct links" or "jiklink" in Korean, they are being openly sold online.
Ticket booking manipulation using macros and queue-jumping links recurs every peak season for train tickets, including holidays and vacation periods. According to Korail, after introducing a "macro detection solution" in July last year, 544,520 macro access attempts were blocked in September during Chuseok holiday bookings, and 279,327 attempts were blocked in January this year. The autumn-to-winter period, when major concerts by popular celebrities are concentrated, is also identified as a time of surging macro activity. Recently, booking brokers have also been capitalizing on the popularity of professional baseball. In December last year, Busan Metropolitan Police arrested a man in his 20s who purchased approximately 3,360 baseball tickets using direct links.
The problem is that simply selling or purchasing macro programs is difficult to punish. Although the "Anti-Scalping Act" passed the National Assembly on December 29, prohibiting scalping and imposing fines of up to 50 times the sales amount, it only penalizes the fraudulent purchase or resale of tickets.
"It is difficult to consider all macros developed for convenience as illegal," said Lee Yoon-ho, a professor of police administration at Dongguk University. "However, selling them for use in ticket booking undermines fair market order, so active monitoring and sanctions on platforms functioning as sales channels are necessary."
Calls are also emerging to strengthen measures for digitally vulnerable groups such as the elderly. "The more prevalent illegal online booking becomes, the more vulnerable groups will be pushed out of cultural activities," said Lee Eun-hee, a professor of consumer science at Inha University. "Measures such as increasing allocated sales quotas for the elderly and people with disabilities should be established."