Divorced First-Generation Idol Reveals He Is A Victim Of A “Romance Scam”
First-generation K-Pop idol Kim Sang Hyuk revealed he was scammed.
On January 24, the former idol was a guest on a Channel S talk show where he revealed he had been a victim of a “romance scam.” Romance scams refer to individuals who begin a romantic relationship with a victim with the purpose of scamming them.
On this day, Kim Sang Hyuk revealed that one day a foreigner struck up a conversation on Instagram.
A foreigner started talking to me on social media. I had recently been scammed by someone close to me, so I just wanted to see what she had to say. After responding, we became close.
— Kim Sang Hyuk
The former idol stated that the scammer had gotten close to him by consoling him through a tough time. Then all of a sudden, the scammer brought up cryptocurrency.
If she was someone close to me, I would be careful about what I say, but looking back, I must have been going through a really difficult time. She consoled me with warm words. Then all of a sudden, she started talking about cryptocurrency.
— Kim Sang Hyuk
Kim Sang Hyuk then revealed how he was then scammed out of ₩20.0 million KRW (about $16,200 USD).
If she had asked me to put the coin in a wallet overseas, I wouldn’t have. She said if I put dollars in my wallet, I would get dividends off of it. At first, I put in a ₩1.00 million KRW (about $811 USD), and I did receive dividends. So I kept putting in money until I put in ₩20.0 million KRW (about $16,200 USD). Then once I clicked (a link) thinking it was the dividend board and all the money disappeared. Her English name was Angelina, and her Chinese name was Lim Yi Hwa.
— Kim Sang Hyuk
The idol then revealed that it wasn’t until later that he realized it was a scam when he watched a similar case being reported on TV.
Later I saw that (a similar case) being reported on TV as a scam. After searching (on the internet), I found there were many similar cases.
— Kim Sang Hyuk
Kim Sang Hyuk is one of K-Pop’s original heartthrobs who debuted with the group Click-B in 1999. The idol would later try his hand out at acting before becoming a successful businessman. The former idol got married in 2019 briefly before divorcing in 2020.
