'Personal Information of 7 Million Distributed' COVID-19 List Seller Referred to Prosecutors

20s Male Sent to Prosecution for Selling 'Corona List'
Illegally Profited 75 Million KRW by Selling 7 Million Personal Data Records
Police Tracking DB Providers and Buyers Alike

[Asia Economy Reporters Seungyoon Song and Jeongyun Lee] A seller who distributed a total of 7 million cases of a database (DB) containing personal information under the name "Corona List" has been handed over to the prosecution.

The Chungnam Provincial Police Agency announced on the 29th that a man in his 20s, Mr. A, suspected of violating the Personal Information Protection Act, was sent to the prosecution with a recommendation for indictment. Mr. A, who had been detained at the Hongseong Police Station detention center in Chungnam, was transferred to the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office Hongseong Branch that morning.

Mr. A is accused of deceiving people by labeling a DB containing personal information such as names and phone numbers of unspecified many as an entry log created to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and selling it through the messenger Telegram.

In September of last year, he received the DB from unidentified individuals, arbitrarily edited it by entering body temperatures, and named it the "Corona List." He then posted sales messages on social networking services (SNS) and sold the data to buyers who contacted him. He initially claimed that he produced such data based on entry logs secretly obtained by hacking government agencies, but police investigations revealed this was not true.

It was investigated that Mr. A sold more than 7 million pieces of personal information at about 10 to 20 won per case, earning approximately 75 million won in illegal profits. The police conducted searches of Mr. A's bank accounts and residence and seized 145 million won in cash, presumed to be criminal proceeds.

Following the initial report by this outlet, the police have been investigating Mr. A since the 20th of last month with cooperation and arrested him on the 21st. The police are also tracking those who provided personal information to Mr. A as well as the buyers.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.