“I, Yoo Jae-seok, will come forward for the fans in need”… ‘Sick of it’ celebrity impersonation fraud, still rampant this year [Tooja 360]

[Herald Economy = Reporter Seo Kyung-won] Investment fraud impersonating celebrities continues this year by cleverly exploiting the legal laxity of insufficient grounds for punishment.

On the 22nd, a post was posted on Instagram introducing himself as broadcaster Yoo Jae-seok, misleading investors. The suspect impersonating Yoo Jae-seok said, “Hello everyone. This is MC Yoo Jae-seok. “For professional reasons, he interacts with a variety of investment professionals and has gained access to a lot of inside information about the investment industry,” he wrote.

This person also took advantage of the fact that Yoo Jae-seok is the majority shareholder of his agency Antenna, saying, “As is known, we invested 30 billion won to acquire 2,699 shares of Antenna (20.7%) owned by Kakao Entertainment, and became the third-largest shareholder,” adding, “This decision was made.” “The reason I decided to take it down was because the information I received was prospective,” he said.

He continued, “With the help of my friends, I was able to avoid many of the mistakes investors make and brighten the path to investment,” adding, “Recently, many fans left me messages asking me to share investment techniques and the latest market information. “At first I didn’t want to respond, but recently I heard that a fan who had been continuously supporting me was in trouble because he continued to lose money in the stock market,” he explained.

At the same time, this person added, “His sincerity moved me so much that I decided to come forward to help small investors in the stock market.”

However, in Korea, there is no legal basis to punish impersonation itself. Civil and criminal action is only possible when impersonation clearly causes secondary damage such as fraud or defamation. A bill (amendment to the Information and Communications Network Act) was proposed in the National Assembly that would punish impersonation with imprisonment of up to one year or a fine of up to 10 million won, but it has been pending for several years due to controversy over the excessive expansion of the right to punishment.

In response, the Korea Communications Standards Commission is responding at the level of recommending self-regulation of platform operators. The Korea Communications Standards Commission held a cooperation meeting with Google and Meta in November last year to discuss ways to prevent the distribution of illegal and harmful information, including Meta’s advertisements impersonating celebrities to encourage stock investment, and to promote self-regulation. The Korea Communications Standards Commission announced, “Business operators such as Google and Meta agree with the purpose of the Korea Communications Standards Commission’s communications review and self-regulation, and have decided to cooperate with the committee’s request for self-regulation by applying their own community guidelines and strengthening monitoring.”

In November of last year, the Seocho Police Station in Seoul was accused of impersonating Kim Jong-in, former chairman of the emergency response committee of the United Future Party (predecessor of the People Power Party), and Jinhyung Joo, former CEO of Hanwha Investment & Securities, on social networking services (SNS) to encourage users to invest in stocks. There was a case where a suspect was placed under investigation on suspicion of fraud.

Previously, a false advertising post impersonating former Chairman Kim was posted on social media such as Facebook, encouraging stock investment by saying, “We guarantee an 80% success rate.” This post also included a photo of former Chairman Kim and President Yoon Seok-yeol together.

The Buddhist suspect impersonating former Chairman Kim said in a false post, “I have made significant profits in the stock market based on my professional knowledge,”and “Despite the fact that I am already 83 years old and my health and mental state are gradually weakening, the people are financially struggling.””We want to help you overcome difficulties,” he claimed.

The unidentified suspect said, “You can make profits dozens or even hundreds of times your annual salary by investing in stocks,”but said, “Investment involves risk, and decisions must be made taking into account the individual’s situation and risk tolerance.”It was made to look like a legitimate investment recommendation. It is not difficult to find illegal advertisements using former CEO Joo’s name and photo on social media.

gil@heraldcorp.com