South Korea: Two held over illicit motel spycam

KUALA LUMPUR (March 21): Police in Seoul have arrested two persons for “livestreaming and selling secretly filmed videos of some 1,600 motel guests in the past year”, reported The Korea Herald yesterday.

The South Korea-based English daily said the two men recorded videos of guests “via wireless internet protocol cameras set up at 42 motel rooms at 30 motels in 10 cities in the North and South Gyeongsang and Chungcheong Provinces between Nov. 24 last year and March 2 this year.”

“Ultra mini cameras with a 1mm lens” were placed in “TV set-top boxes, hair dryer holders and sockets, among others places inside the motel rooms,” reported The Korea Herald.

About 7 million won (RM25,100) were spent by “97 paid-up members” for “803 illegally filmed videos” via a website. The website had 4,099 members, said daily.

Meanwhile, the BBC reported that in 2017, “more than 6,400 cases of illegal filming were reported” to South Korean police

The broadcaster also stated that illicit filming is such a problem in South Korea that Seoul police had to set up a “special squad of female inspectors who regularly visit the city's public toilets looking for spy cameras”.

“Check any holes or areas where cameras could be placed in TVs, speakers and other gadgets and devices in the room,” a police officer told the Korea JoongAng Daily. 

“Then, turn off all the lights in the room and turn on the flashlight function on your phone, then place this light over these holes. If there is a camera lens in there, you will be able to tell because the light will flash back at you.”