Chuseok mystery shoppers, tip-off channel to target scalpers — offenders face membership cancellation and criminal referral
Korea Railroad Corp. (Korail) announced Tuesday it will launch an intensive crackdown on train ticket scalping ahead of the Chuseok holiday, deploying mystery shoppers and a public tip-off channel at the same time to stamp out the illegal trade.
The mystery shopper operation will target online secondhand platforms such as Karrot and Bungaejangter. Korail employees pose as buyers, purchase scalped tickets directly, and then identify the sellers for enforcement action.
The tactic was first introduced during the Lunar New Year holiday earlier this year.
Korail will also run a scalping tip-off channel through its website and the Korail+ mobile app, where users can report suspected scalping cases. Confirmed tip-offs will be rewarded with train fare discount coupons.
Sellers caught scalping will be immediately removed from Korail’s membership rolls under terms-of-service rules revised in June, and cases will be referred to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, police and other relevant authorities for investigation.
Korail also operates a macro-detection solution that blocks bulk ticket purchases made through automated programs by analyzing users’ access patterns and purchasing behavior to flag abnormal activity. Since the system launched in July last year, it has blocked about 17 million attempts.
Meanwhile, Chuseok ticket reservations will open Sept. 3 through the Korail+ app and a dedicated holiday booking page on the Korail website, with all purchases made online only.
Reservations are open exclusively to Korail “integrated members,” so users must complete the integrated membership conversion before booking. Existing Korail members are converted automatically, but those registered only with SR must sign up for integrated membership separately through the Korail+ app or a dedicated page on the Korail website.
In addition, Korail launched a preview service starting at 2 p.m. Monday, allowing users to check booking schedules by route and register their preferred travel details in advance through the Korail+ app and the holiday booking page.
“Ticket scalping is an illegal act that deprives passengers of a fair chance to buy tickets,” said Lee Min-seong, head of Korail’s passenger business division. “We will establish a fair ticket retail order through thorough enforcement and strong legal action.”
kwonhl@heraldcorp.com
This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.