<Anchor>



Recently, the number of criminals who approach the self-employed as a substitute for online advertising and run away with only a down payment is increasing.

We received several reports of such damage, and the police also launched an investigation.



Reporter Park Ye-rin covered it.



<Reporter>



Mr. A, who runs a beauty company in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, received a tempting offer from a person who came to the store in November last year saying he was an employee of an advertising agency.



If he pays 1.98 million won as a one-year down payment, he will post company advertisements and promotional articles on social media and portal sites blogs.



[Mr. A/Self-Employed: If (a staff of the agency) advertises, it will not help sales if Power Link or the experience group blog is on the top (I suggested)]



However, after the contract, the advertisement did not proceed.



When I asked for a refund, I only got an answer to wait, and



[Calling from Mr. A to an advertising agency: They said they would give me a refund, but there was no news, so I called, but I didn’t answer…

.

(Today, the CEO will call our finance team leader in the afternoon to process the deposit.)]



I was frustrated and accepted the penalty request, but I didn't even get this money.



[Mr A/Self-employed person: There is no advertising part, and it is strange to give a penalty because there is no advertisement...

.

I thought I should get some money back (I paid the penalty)]



There are 62 self-employed or small business owners who, like Mr. A, claim to have suffered large or small damage from employees of this company.



I went directly to the advertising agency in question.



This is the address written on the business card of the company official.



The company opened and closed repeatedly, changing only the company name and still operating the office in the same place.



A company official who met with SBS reporters said, "Some salespeople have inevitably changed the company name while continuing to undermine the company's image."



He explained, "It is true that salespeople lacked communication with contractors, but there has never been a time when advertisements did not go according to the contract."



The police also launched an investigation as some self-employed people filed complaints that they were victims of fraud.



[Kim Jin-woo / Attorney: Because there are many cases where companies doing this kind of marketing do so-called stealth without writing contracts or leaving records…

.]



After completing the investigation of the accuser, the police plan to call the company officials soon to investigate.



(Video coverage: Cho Chang-hyeon, Choi Jun-sik, video editing: Jeon Min-gyu, VJ: Kim Jong-gap)