Consumer complaints grow about online shopping scams in Korea

[Photo by Yonhap]

Despite the South Korean government’s announcement on Monday of a plan to combat phishing and illegal fraud cases, online shopping scams have become common, with many consumers being left vulnerable to damages.

Maeil Business Newspaper has looked into one of the scam cases.

In June, Iklim, an online shopping mall, launched a large-scale advertisement on the front page of Naver Mobile.

The seller offered deals including a Dyson Airwrap, normally priced at 699,000 won ($505), for around 380,000 won, and a pack of 20 Jin Ramen, typically 11,000 won, for 6,900 won.

However, the buyers said the deals looked suspicious.

One of the buyers clicked on the ad on June 9 and made a purchase. Two days later, the buyer received a text message saying the product would be shipped between June 14 and 18, but the delivery didn’t arrive.

The merchant marked the order history as “card canceled,” yet the credit card company confirmed no such cancellation, according to the buyer.

Some customers were told that shipments were delayed due to low inventory.

Later, access to the website was blocked. Nevertheless, the merchant continued to urge customers to pay in cash, claiming that “card payments are not possible.”

Scammers are also prevalent in mobile apps, with online room-sharing scams becoming increasingly common as more people travel abroad.

“Travel fraud has skyrocketed in the past year and a half,” said an official from Booking.com.

Scammers post fake listings online and send phishing emails with fake links to potential customers. Once clicked, the buyer is redirected to a fake website where the scammer takes the payment.

However, not all victims report their losses.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, only 26.4 percent of those who got online shopping scammed reported their experience.

Data showed that 70.1 percent of the surveyed said they didn‘t report their losses because the damage was not serious.