Former T-ARA’s Areum Attacks Her Boyfriend’s Accusers In A Shocking Exposé
Content Warning
The former T-ARA member Areum recently returned to Instagram for the first time since being hospitalized a few days ago for attempting to take her life.
Areum made multiple posts on her Instagram, starting off by talking briefly about her health. The singer apologized to fans for making them worry and thanked them for their support in this crisis period. She also informed fans that her body is still recovering, and as of yet, she still cannot walk properly.
Moving on, Areum’s posts focused on the recent allegations made against her and her boyfriend, primarily by a reporter-turned-YouTuber called Lee Jin Ho. While the singer was still unconscious in the hospital, Lee put out a YouTube video accusing her and her boyfriend, Seo, of borrowing money from her social media followers. Lee also produced a phone call recording, allegedly between Seo and a person named Hwang Yoon Woo, where the former was asking to borrow money for Areum’s treatment.
Lee also reported about another alleged victim, Kim Da Eun, who claimed to have sent Areum ₩30.0 million KRW (about $22,300 USD). This information, however, was posted by Kim herself under an earlier post where Areum had warned fans of a hacker trying to scam her followers out of their money through impersonation.
After Areum regained consciousness at the hospital, she immediately refuted these claims and promised to expose Lee Jin Ho’s false report. In her recent Instagram post, Areum accused Lee of making up the allegations for views and reprimanded him for involving her boyfriend in this chaos. The singer also mentioned that there are many other celebrities she knows of who have been victimized by Lee’s propagation of rumors and that she plans to take legal action against him on their behalf.
The former T-ARA singer admitted that her own near-death experience has made her more committed to living life with more strength. Since her doctors said that her survival was no short of a miracle, she is taking it as a sign from above to continue her fight. Only this time, she will not just fight her abusive ex-husband, Kim Young Gul, but also Lee Jin Ho and every other malicious commenter who tried to put her and her children in harm’s way.
In the second post, Areum directly addressed Lee’s claims that he had been able to reach the hacker who scammed people through Areum’s social media. In his video, Lee had shared a screenshot of his conversation with Areum, or rather, the hacker pretending to be her.
March 28, Thursday, 6:32PM
Lee Jin Ho: This is Lee Jin Ho with the 연예뒤통령 YouTube channel. I’ve been trying to reach you, but you aren’t answering my calls. Would it be possible to speak over the phone?7:03PM
Alleged Hacker Pretending To Be Areum: Why do we need to speak? I’m going to write your name in my will. If you have anything to say, you can text me.7:04PM
Lee Jin Ho: Are you absolutely sure that you have never asked your fans for money?
Alleged Hacker Pretending To Be Areum: Why do you want to know?
Areum, however, clarified that the hacker has still not been caught and continues to access her personal accounts.
I watched his video over and over again, baffled by his audacity. First of all, I’d like to address Mr. Lee Jin Ho since he said that he was able to get in touch with the hacker. The hacker still accesses my phone and Instagram, getting real-time updates from text messages, photos, and DMs. Oppa and I have been trying to track down the hacker, and when we failed, we changed our phones and everything. But the hacker still has access. So, while I understand the concept of your YouTube channel and the intention behind the video about me, I would like to let it be known that I have never, ever received any DMs from you, and I have never written a will.
— Areum
She also addressed Hwang, admitting that she had borrowed money on one occasion, but her boyfriend had repaid it all. As for the money he and Kim both sent to the hacker, Areum said she tried to resolve the matter by catching the hacker and staying in touch with them both until they turned their backs on her, creating a malicious group chat to defame Areum.
As for Mr. Hwang Yoon Woo from the voice recording, you approached me first, saying you were a big fan of mine. I remember you. But we didn’t keep in touch for a long time. Then you DMed me out of the blue, claiming that I borrowed money from you. That caught me off guard. You know this. You even said you sent over ₩23.0 million KRW (about $17,100 USD) to the hacker. While that was extremely shocking to me, that was only the beginning of my troubles. Anyway, I met up with you to talk about what happened. My mom even bought you food. I told you that while I never received your money, I’d compensate you once I started working again.
The recording comes from the ONE time that I reached out to you for help when my child was really sick. I was desperate. Other than that one time, I have never received a dime from you. Also, when my child was sick, Seo Dong Hoon kept in touch with you, and he paid you back with partial payments.
I don’t have to pay you back for the ₩23.0 million KRW (about $17,100 USD) you supposedly sent to the hacker. I can try to have the hacker arrested and have them pay you back. But you started demanding the money from me, and it was starting to get stressful for me. Nonetheless, I knew what it must feel like to have lost the money, so I kept telling you that we’ll figure it out and I kept in touch with you the whole time.
That’s when someone named Kim Da Eun came into the picture. She’s the one insisting that I borrowed ₩30.0 million KRW (about $22,300 USD) from her. She told me that you set up a weird group chat about me, so out of feeling betrayed, I blocked you. I didn’t want to help you out anymore. It turned out, though, that Kim Da Eun was the one who made the group chat. And she was meddling in the middle, lying to both you and me. At this point, though, you also felt betrayed by me, and you had completely turned your back on me.
I wanted to help Kim Da Eun, too, because she was so young. She said that she sent at least ₩4.30 million KRW (about $3,190 USD) to the hacker (which I never received). I told her that I’d help her. I told her to leave the group chat because I would sue the people in it, and I didn’t want her to get involved. But she also turned her back on me and started giving me attitude.
[abridged]
I can’t believe the audacity all of you have, turning this into a much bigger problem than it is—especially when you are the ones being criminals. Also, you don’t seem to understand how serious of a crime it is to have exposed my personal issues without my consent. That’s a violation of my privacy, so you just wait. I’m going to teach you how much you messed up.
— Areum
In a third fiery post, Areum posted some of her conversations with the “victims,” showing evidence of being in direct touch with them.
2:55 PM
Kim Da Eun: I’m the devil.
2:56 PM
Kim Da Eun: But General Lee Soon Shin watches over me.
2:56 PM
Lee Areum: Yeah, okay. I knew that already. I don’t want to communicate with you anymore; you’re a child.
2:56 PM
Kim Da Eun: Okie. Gotcha.
2:56 PM
Lee Areum: You can figure out for yourself how to get out of this mess.
Kim Da Eun: Okie.
She also shed light on her personal struggle with this hacker’s scam, admitting that it has put her and her boyfriend under tremendous financial pressure. As a result, they have decided to seek help from the authorities.
Regarding Hwang Yoon Woo borrowing money from loan sharks to lend to me, I am sorry about that. I looked into ways that I could borrow money for myself. But because of my career, I was not able to come up with the funds to take care of my children. I did have a small sum scheduled to be deposited, though. So that’s why I asked Hwang Yoon Woo to lend me the money.
After that, though, the hacker accessed not only my Instagram account but also my KakaoTalk account. And the hacker has scammed all of my acquaintances. Things got really bad for me because I was trying to pay them all back. I’m still struggling, but I’m hanging in there and trying to pay back as much as I can to overcome this whole situation.
My boyfriend and I are drowning in debt, and we realized that this is unfair to us. So we’re working with the police and other legal authorities to figure this out. Please be aware that we’re processing multiple lawsuits at the moment.
I don’t know how the hacker did it, but the picture of me holding up three fingers? It’s an edit using a photo that is saved on my phone.
[abridged]
Because of the havoc that the hacker wreaked on my connections, I was unable to get help when I really needed it. To those who did lend me money when I personally reached out, I am forever grateful. I will pay you back tenfold. I’m sure my life isn’t going to be this difficult forever. I was so exhausted… but to battle you all, I think I’ll have to get back up on my feet.
— Areum
In the post, Areum had a stern warning to her accusers and her hacker for harassing her mother.
We’re going to speed things up now. I have evidence that you all ganged up on my mom and mocked her with phone calls. How dare you mess with my family?
[abridged]
And to the hacker who might even be reading these updates as they come, hiding among my followers… You tried to trick my mom into thinking I was actually crazy. You texted her saying all kinds of nonsense. For a minute, she even believed that I might have been gambling. I have never gambled in my life, and I had no idea what Toto even was until this all happened. Sigh… I hope none of you are banking on asking for leniency. That would be far too shameless of you all.
— Areum
She concluded her exposé by calling out some of the accomplices of her ex-husband for harassing her and her boyfriend, alluding to the fact that they were the ones who spread the rumor about Seo being a sex offender.
Finally, to the people in the group chat… I know who you are. I would’ve never guessed. Kim Young Gul, Choi, and Park. Just wait and see. How dare you team up like that and corner us? And Choi… You borrowed billions from my boyfriend and then ghosted him. Yet there you were, being buddy-buddy with Kim Young Gul and talking sh*t behind our back. Did you really think we would not find out? You all messed with the wrong people. Watch and see, you’re all going to jail.
— Areum
After she made the post, the Choi she mentioned at the end of her third caption responded under her post, implying they were innocent. Areum, however, was amused by their audacity and replied with a scathing comment.
csy4516: I don’t understand why you keep talking about me.
Areum: Wow, did you just comment on this post? You’re fearless. You’ll find out why around next week. Hope you have a good time at the investigation.
Areum has mentioned that moving forward, she will focus on getting legal counsel rather than posting updates on Instagram.
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