Scalpers who used macro programs to purchase professional baseball game tickets in bulk and resell them at a markup were caught in large numbers.

The Cyber Investigation Division of the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency announced on the 8th that it had booked without detention 35 ticket scalpers, including an office worker identified as A in his 30s, on charges of obstruction of business, violation of the Information and Communications Network Act, and violation of the National Sports Promotion Act.

They are accused of repeatedly using macro and direct link (direct link) programs from September 2024 through June this year to purchase large quantities of tickets on ticket reservation sites and resell them.

A macro automatically enters items such as an account ID, password, and security characters. A direct link allows the user to move quickly to the seat selection stage without a waiting queue. Using these methods enables reservations at very high speed by skipping multiple steps.

In the case of A, who resold the most tickets, from September 2024 until recently he illicitly booked more than 6,000 baseball·concert tickets and sold them for 1.5 to 5 times face value, taking in total sales proceeds of about 530 million won. The investigation found that his net profit excluding the ticket purchase price alone amounted to a little over 390 million won.

A used a total of five accounts, including ones borrowed from acquaintances. Using a ‘queue-jumping’ method enabled by macro and direct link programs, he purchased in bulk hard-to-get tickets for popular professional baseball club games and the postseason, then sold them on ticket trading sites. He was also found to have resold concert tickets for well-known singers such as Lim Young-woong·BTS·Psy·Sung Si-kyung using the same method.

Other scalpers also used similar methods to resell tickets and pocket profits, and the total sales proceeds collected by the 35 individuals were found to amount to a little over 800 million won.

Among the suspects were ordinary office workers, housewives, and college students, as well as public officials and soldiers. Some of them initially used macro and direct link programs purchased online for 50,000~500,000 won for the purpose of watching baseball, but after realizing that they could earn money easily, they switched to ticket scalping.

A police official said, “We conducted forensic analysis of macro program attack methods and shared them with the security departments of ticket reservation sites,” adding, “Because fraudulent reservations·ticket scalping are crimes that deprive the public of fair opportunities to enjoy culture, we will continue to carry out enforcement.”