Baedal Minjok, a prominent delivery service. (Image courtesy of Woowa Brothers)
SEOUL, Oct. 31 (Korea Bizwire) – Woowa Brothers, the operators of Baedal Minjok, a prominent delivery service, announced on Monday their firm stance against fraudulent activities, including taking legal action against review manipulators.
Review manipulation involves a restaurant paying someone to craft misleading reviews on the BaeMin app. These deceptive reviews are typically written by individuals who pretend to have ordered food from the restaurant in question, aiming to boost the establishment’s reputation.
Previously, Woowa Brothers initiated legal proceedings against a review manipulation company after uncovering their involvement in the purchase of numerous BaeMin IDs through secondary trading sites, resulting in the posting of fabricated reviews.
In a noteworthy case, one vendor was sentenced to a 10-month prison term in October. This individual was found to have been hired to write 100 false reviews, each for 300,000 won, totaling 350 times between September 2017 and May 2020. During the same period, another individual received an 8-month prison sentence along with two years of probation for producing 100 deceptive reviews, each valued at 1 million won.
To combat manipulated reviews, Baedal Minjok implemented a monitoring system in November 2020, introduced an artificial intelligence (AI) detection model for real-time monitoring in November 2021, and further refined the detection model in January.
Furthermore, Woowa Brothers is actively pursuing legal action against those attempting to exploit credit cards, mobile phone micropayments, and other financial transactions on the Baedal Minjok platform.
A fraudulent transaction, in this context, refers to a financial crime wherein an individual in dire need of money creates false sales through credit cards or mobile phone micropayments and collects the remaining amount, deducting a commission.
Thanks to its persistent efforts, Woowa Brothers has successfully initiated complaints and prosecutions against companies involved in false reviews and fraudulent transactions. This has resulted in 11 companies or individuals being fined or imprisoned, while investigations continue against 12 more.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
