Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail) announced Tuesday it has referred 26 cases of illegal ticket scalping during the Lunar New Year holiday period to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the National Police Agency, filing a fraud complaint in one case.
Korail detected 19 cases through its "Scalping Report Center" operated on the Korail Talk mobile app and company website. An additional seven cases were caught through a newly introduced "mystery shopper" program, resulting in immediate membership termination for violators.
The mystery shopper initiative, in which employees pose as buyers to identify scalpers, uncovered four cases of tickets sold at inflated prices, two cases of purchase brokering, and one case of ticket fraud.
Korail filed a fraud complaint with police on January 23 against a seller who posted fake ticket listings on an online secondhand marketplace, collected payments from buyers, then disappeared.
Investigators also discovered abuse of public discount benefits. A veteran exploited the 50% discount and advance booking privileges designated for personal use to secure tickets for resale before being caught.
Korail imposed a surcharge of ten times the standard fare on customers who used the discounted tickets, and reported the seller to relevant authorities on January 27.
"Scalping transactions can lead to secondary damages such as fraud, so we urge customers never to purchase scalped tickets," said Lee Min-sung, head of Korail's Customer Marketing Division. "We will take strong action against scalpers, including membership termination and criminal referrals, to establish a sound ticket distribution system."