<Anchor>



Last year, it was difficult to obtain masks even in long lines due to lack of masks. As the government encouraged the manufacture of masks, the number of companies increased by more than 10 times after that.



There is also a related scam, and reporter Park Byung-il covered it.



<Reporter> This



is a road in the direction of Asan, Chungnam.



Large trucks are lined up in one lane.



[At the time witness: I was standing in a lane all night from morning. Hundreds of cars go and keep blocking one lane… .]



These trucks are full of masks.



[Mask Distributor: Mask stocks from all over the country. We can assume that all of them have been gathered.]



A company said that he received hundreds of millions of mask orders from abroad, and said that if he brought the masks to a warehouse in Asan, they would pay them right away is.



[Mr. Jeong/Mask manufacturer executive: There were dozens of cars waiting because they couldn't enter the warehouse along the national highway. It was a mess.]



A mask maker in Gyeonggi-do says that it carried 10 million copies at the time.



[Mr. Jeong/Mask manufacturer executive: KF94 masks went 3 million, and dental masks went 7 million. It was worth about 600 to 700 million won.]



On this day, hundreds of millions of masks were loaded by companies all over the country.



However, no one received the money, and it was stored in the warehouse for months and then reloaded.



Why did this happen?



[Mr. Jeong/Mask manufacturer executive: Since factories have so many stocks, I had no choice but to send it, believing or not believing that they would pay cash when I put things in.] As of



last month, there were 137 mask manufacturers in January of last year

.

It has exploded more than 10 times to 1,470.



In March last year, the KF94 mask consumer price, which soared to an average of 4,525 won, fell to 586 won in one year.



As a result, stocks were piled up at each factory, and there were companies that stopped production.



[(Is this all a mask?) Yes. There are tens of thousands of copies. Mask here and there, all masks, huh... .]



There are frequent cases of exploiting the situation of overflowing supply.



A mask manufacturer in Gyeonggi Province received an order of 190,000 copies at the end of last year.



He believed that he had traded once, but he sold the mask to another place and ran away.



[Kim Mo/A victim company team leader: I called the driver and asked for the address (delivered). While the driver was on the way, he received a phone call and changed the location.]



There are more than 7 confirmed companies that have suffered similar damage.



[Mr. Ji Mo/B representative of the damaged company: I will purchase 300,000 copies per week. Then it’s a big hand. I think I was a little swayed by that kind of mind] The



company that ordered the mask was a ghost company.



[Mr. Kim/A Damaged Company Team Leader: It is a non-substantial business with only addresses on the 3rd floor of a shabby shopping street in the neighborhood.] As



each company is accumulating a lot of stock, it is trying to induce investment or collect commissions by claiming that they have received large orders from abroad. There are also scammers.



[Manufacturer executives: 10 billion copies and 20 billion copies are good, 600 billion copies and 800 billion copies (they have been ordered.) I've never seen such a dirty business group in this industry.]



Overrun and bleeding competition between companies is concerned about bankruptcy. The reality is that various scams that have been exploited are sold.



In addition to thorough investigations, there are voices saying that government-level measures are urgent, such as pioneering overseas markets and strengthening licensing standards.



(VJ: Yun-taek)