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Scam on the Gram: Direct overseas purchase complaints rise as social media drives traffic

Published: 16 Feb. 2025, 17:48 Updated: 16 Feb. 2025, 18:22

Customs workers examine goods shipped and purchased through direct overseas orders at the Incheon International Airport Headquarters Customs Express Logistics Center on Nov. 20, 2024. [YONHAP]

Don’t trust everything on social media — especially if it leads you to a shopping mall that ships from overseas, Korea’s consumer rights agency warns.

Eight out of 10 shoppers in Korea who bought items directly from overseas shopping malls accessed through links on social media or tailored digital ads have been unsatisfied with their purchases, according to findings from the state-run Korea Consumer Agency (KCA).

Notably, 67.1 percent of such consumers were led to those websites through Instagram and YouTube.

A total of 2,064 reports of fraud related to overseas direct purchases were filed on the Crossborder Transaction Consumer Portal from 2021 through 2023, according to the KCA on Friday. The number of cases rose steeply year after year: 251 complaints were filed in 2021, 441 in 2022 and 1,372 in 2023. The reported fraudulent websites include both domestic and foreign operators.

Of those 2,064 reports, 1,821 cases identified how users accessed shopping websites; 1,499, or 82.3 percent, involved leading users to the websites through social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, KakaoTalk, X, TikTok and internet cafes.

Instagram directed users to the shopping malls the most, accounting for 762 cases, or 41.8 percent, while YouTube followed with 25.3 percent. Facebook; online ads; web surfing and search engines; and offline recommendations made up 7.5 percent, 10.5 percent, 5.2 percent and 2 percent of the users’ pathways to the websites, respectively.

U.S. social network Instagram's logo is displayed on a smartphone in front of the media giant Meta's logo on a laptop screen in this photo illustration created on Jan. 9 in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany. [AFP/YONHAP]

Counterfeit brands were the most common type of reported damages, making up 972, or 47.1 percent, of all complaints. Such cases refer to sellers who operate websites that impersonate famous fashion brands and do not ship items and suspend contact once a buyer makes a purchase.

The second-most reported cases saw merchants sell items that were of poorer quality than advertised, accounting for 959, or 46.5 percent, of all complaints. Such shopping malls refused to refund purchased items or offered only partial refunds.

Other consumers reported cases of sellers who sold items while impersonating celebrities, or food and medicine that did not clearly identify ingredients or its manufacturer.

Instagram and YouTube have self-regulatory rules for advertisements and content that must be adhered to when uploaded. Users can also directly report illegal or harmful content.

A KCA survey conducted on 1,000 Instagram and YouTube users, however, showed that 42.2 percent of those users did not know such self-regulatory rules existed, while 59.7 percent did not know there was a function that allowed them to report content.

The consumer agency has requested Meta and Google to cooperate in blocking illegal and harmful content and advertisements. The KCA also plans to compile a list of website addresses of illegal scam retailers and work with the Korea Communications Standards Commission and other relevant authorities to block access to these sites.

The KCA also advises consumers to be cautious of social media advertisements that sell products of well-known brands at excessively low prices when making overseas direct purchases. The agency recommends visiting the brand’s official website to compare URLs, checking customer reviews before buying and using credit cards instead of bank transfers to leave proof of transactions, which will help in the case of potential fraud.

Meanwhile, major card companies like Visa, Mastercard, American Express and UnionPay offer a "chargeback service," which allows consumers to request a transaction cancellation within a certain period in cases of suspected fraud, nondelivery or failure to receive a refund.

BY KIM JI-HYE [[email protected]]