[OK Tip-off] "Me Too" Everywhere…The 'OTT Account' Ponzi Scheme That Made 400 People Cry

Operated the split-account normally at first, then suddenly vanished…a small-sum fraud targeting those who would give up reporting

Office worker Mr. Park (26) saw a so-called '4-person party' OTT (video streaming service) account-sharing post on social media (SNS) in June last year and contacted the seller, A.

This method, called a '4-person party' or 'split,' is the practice of up to 4 people sharing a single account to save on OTT usage fees. The account holder receives a set fee from other users and provides three profiles within the account.

Park believed A's word that he would share an OTT 'Wavve' account for one year and transferred 30,000 won.

However, from March this year, Park's profile access was blocked.

When Park protested, A said, "There was a problem with the existing account," and after deducting the cost for the remaining period (3 months), said that if Park paid about 23,000 won more, he would provide a new one-year ID.

Park sent more money, but the new profile also went dead in two months.

When he tried to contact A again, A had already blocked both KakaoTalk and phone calls and vanished.

Victims number about 400… a chain fraud that abused SNS '1-on-1 chats'

A was not the only victim of A's fraud.

The number of members of a victims' group café opened on NAVER reached 450 as of the 30th of last month.

According to Mr. Lee (27), who opened the café, the accounts A sold included many famous OTTs such as Netflix, Laftel, Watcha, Wavve, Apple Music, TVING, iQIYI, and Disney+.

Victims ranged widely from their late teens to early 30s, and the damage amounts also ranged from a few thousand won to tens of thousands of won.

According to the financial-fraud information-sharing service 'TheCheat,' A used a total of 9 account numbers. The damage related to these accounts was about 5.9 million won.

Lee, too, suffered damage of about 15,000 won when A vanished in May, with 4 months left on his OTT subscription.

The scheme by A that victims figured out was a typical 'Ponzi.' A operated by extending existing subscribers' accounts with money from newly incoming subscribers, and then vanished when the cash flow hit its limit. In fact, A cut off contact on the 23rd of last month, leaving some victims a message that he had reached a state where he could not handle account operation with his own ability.

Lee explained, "At first, since the damage amount was not large, I was going to let it go, but I posted on SNS thinking there could be more victims," adding, "As victims leaving comments increased afterward, I created a café for a systematic response."

Currently, victims are filing complaints against A one after another with the cyber crime report system or the competent police station on fraud charges.

"They won't report because it's a small sum"…Beware platform terms-of-service violations

Experts analyzed this case as a typical fraud that abused the fact that victims are apt to give up reporting or responding because the sum is small. In particular, since A used X (formerly Twitter), where group-buying culture is active, as his main stage, the scale of damage grew.

Lee Yoon-ho, professor emeritus of the Department of Police Administration at Dongguk University, explained, "In online account-sharing fraud, the damage per person is small, but from the criminal's standpoint they can reap large profits through many victims," adding, "There is an aspect in which the crime is repeated because they think the punishment burden is small even if caught."

Furthermore, experts warned that individual-to-individual OTT account transactions can lead not only to fraud risk but also to disadvantages from platform terms-of-service violations.

Attorney Kim Hyun-soo of Daeryun LLC said, "Most OTT providers strictly limit the scope of account sharing to family members or members of the same household through their terms of service," adding, "If you use an account resold commercially beyond this, even as a fraud victim, problems such as account suspension or a damages claim can arise."

Meanwhile, attempts were made to contact A several times to hear his position on the fraud allegations, but A not only did not answer the phone but also remained silent to text messages asking about the Ponzi scheme and intentional disappearance.

seohyoju@yna.co.kr

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Yonhap News - [OK Tip-off] "Me Too" Everywhere…The 'OTT Account' Ponzi Scheme That Made 400 People Cry (Go to Article)
SBS - "Me Too" Everywhere…The 'OTT Account' Ponzi Scheme That Made 400 People Cry (Go to Article)
Jeonnam Ilbo - Netflix, Wavve, and Other OTT Account-Sharing Fraud…Victims Approaching 450 (Go to Article)