Donghak ants ringing in the reading room… 81% of victims received’Mugwort’

5,659 cases of damage received in 4Q last year…81.3% ↑

In January of this year, it surged 144% to 2,025 cases.

Recommend no-founded items even in the membership fee of millions of won

“The current fluctuating growth trend, the damage can be particularly great”

Due to the stock investment craze, the number of victims of’stock reading rooms’ who provide investment advice through mobile messengers are increasing significantly as they jump into the stock market. Although the average usage fee reaches 3.7 million won, there are many cases of recommending unfounded stocks or leaving the stocks they purchased in advance to members. It is pointed out that a novice individual investor needs special attention as there is a high possibility of a large loss in the current bull market.

According to the Korea Consumer Agency and the Korea Consumer Organizations Council on the 7th, the number of stock reading room damage consultations received at the ‘1372 Consumer Counseling Center’, a national consumer consultation integrated call center, was 5,659 in the fourth quarter of last year, an increase of 81.3% from the same period last year (3,122). . In January of this year, 2,025 cases were received, a 144.0% increase from a year ago. For four months from October to January, the number of consultations related to Lidangbang was the second most common after consulting on clothing and textiles (12,95 cases). The number of reports of damage from similar investment advisors filed with the Financial Supervisory Service increased from 82 in 2015 to 556 in 2020, about 6.8 times in five years.

In particular, in their 50s and 70s, counseling related to stock reading rooms was the most frequent. There have been cases where middle-aged and elderly generations who have started investing in stocks are injured after entering the reading room where they pick up the rising stocks.

Most stock reading rooms are run by’similar investment advisory companies’ that do not have special qualifications. A quasi-investment advisory business entity is not a financial company licensed or registered by the Financial Services Commission and may operate without special qualification restrictions. According to the Financial Supervisory Service, there were 1,841 similar investment advisory firms at the end of June last year, and 489 newly opened since then.

Stock reading rooms usually offer high usage fees of millions of won and recommend trading items. According to the Korea Consumer Agency, the average usage fee per person of 2,610 cases with confirmed usage fees among the applications for damage relief for stock reading rooms received in 2019 was 3.73 million won. There were 56 cases in which the usage fee exceeded 10 million won, and there were also victims who paid 36 million won.

Even if a user requested to cancel the service, the most common type of damage was that the remaining usage fee was not returned or a penalty was excessively imposed. According to the Consumer Agency, there was a case where an investor who paid a usage fee of 5 million won requested cancellation, and refused to refund the service fee and extra program cost of 4.95 million won. In addition, similar investment advisory companies often bought certain stocks in advance and turned them over to members at high prices.

Financial authorities are also cracking down on blackmail. Last year, the Financial Supervisory Service inspected the business conditions of 351 similar investment advisory firms and detected 49 illegal activities and notified them to investigative agencies. Nevertheless, due to the nature of reading rooms that are operated mainly in private spaces such as mobile chat rooms, it is expected that the number of such cases will only be’the tip of the iceberg’.

Experts recommend using institutional financial companies that are relatively easy to remedy and provide verified information. Kim Eun-mi, a former researcher at the Korea Financial Investor Protection Foundation, emphasized, “If the market is good, you can trade along the reading room, but the risk increases in the mediator, so it is only the responsibility of the investor, so it is better not to believe unverified information.” Hwang Se-woon, a research fellow at the Capital Markets Research Institute, said, “It is important to use a financial company that is officially licensed,” he advised. “If it is burdensome to directly select stocks, it may be better to use indirect investment methods such as funds or wraps.”

/ Reporter Seung-bae Lee [email protected]

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