Police seized about 200 million won in cash found in a safe during a search of the suspect's residence. [Ulsan Metropolitan Police Agency]
Police seized about 200 million won in cash found in a safe during a search of the suspect's residence. [Ulsan Metropolitan Police Agency]

A man in his 30s who used a self-made macro program to bulk-buy idol concert tickets and resell them at steep markups has been handed over to prosecutors.

The Ulsan Metropolitan Police Agency said Wednesday it had detained the suspect, identified only as A, on Wednesday, Aug. 19, on charges of violating the Performance Act and the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, before referring the case to prosecutors.

According to police, A is accused of using 1,198 accounts registered under foreign nationals' names across three major domestic ticketing platforms to purchase large quantities of idol concert tickets between November 2024 and October 2025, then reselling them on secondhand trading sites at prices three to 13 times the original cost.

The foreign-national accounts were purchased through Telegram at 30,000 won ($22) each, investigators found.

A developed the macro program himself, drawing on computer skills he had acquired while working in e-commerce.

The program was designed to bypass or disrupt CAPTCHA anti-fraud measures on ticketing sites and to post sales listings on secondhand platforms in rapid succession, seconds apart. Using it, A was able to buy and list 70 to 80 tickets within a single minute.

Over roughly a year, A distributed more than 1,700 scalped tickets through this method, netting a profit of about 420 million won ($306,000) after deducting the original purchase costs.

Police identified and arrested A in Seoul after analyzing ticket purchase and sales records and coordinating with overseas authorities.

Police have applied for a pre-indictment restraining order to recover the proceeds of the crime.

During the investigation, police confirmed that the macro program had automated the process all the way through the card payment stage and asked the card companies involved to strengthen their approval procedures as part of broader efforts to improve the system.

"In the course of analyzing the flow of criminal proceeds, we identified a pattern of repeated deposits to a specific individual," a police official said. "We plan to continue expanding the investigation into whether any accomplices were involved."


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