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Photo courtesy of Coupang |
[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] Seoul, South Korea — Accounts for major Korean online platforms such as Naver and Coupang were found being openly sold on Taobao, a Chinese e-commerce marketplace, prompting renewed concerns over digital security.
On December 3, a post on a Korean online community shared screenshots of Taobao listings advertising services such as Naver account creation, bypassed real-name verification, and Coupang seller registration and business license setup.
According to the captured listings, these services were priced from as low as KRW 200 to as high as KRW 5,600.
The discovery comes amid heightened anxiety following Coupang’s recent data breach affecting 33.7 million user accounts. News that Korean platform accounts—including Coupang—are being traded on a Chinese platform has intensified public concern.
However, Coupang stated that the sale of Korean accounts on Chinese e-commerce sites is unrelated to the ongoing personal information breach.
During a National Assembly inquiry on December 2, Rep. Kim Jang-kyum of the People Power Party pointed out that Coupang accounts were being sold for 23–183 yuan (approx. KRW 5,000–40,000) on Taobao and questioned whether such listings implied that login information had been leaked.
Coupang Korea CEO Park Dae-joon responded, “The method of intrusion in this incident did not involve stolen accounts or login credentials.”
Coupang Chief Information Security Officer Bret Mathis added that he was not aware of the specific listings, explaining, “On the dark web, e-commerce accounts are often stolen or fabricated in various ways. Some attackers may even use client cookie data to hijack accounts.”
Alphabiz Reporter Kim Jisun(stockmk2020@alphabiz.co.kr)
