Every day we see and hear advertisements wherever we go, whether they are displayed in a public place or bombarding our screens through social media. Usually, advertisements feature celebrities, YouTubers, influencers, or other well-known personalities. When a famous person advertises a product, it often creates immediate trust for the item. As a result, many consumers feel more reassured in their purchasing decisions and buy the product or service without hesitation. However, there has been a rise in fraudulent advertisements promoted by scammers impersonating celebrities. By abusing the trust people have in celebrities, these fraudulent ads are causing increasingly significant harm. 

▲ Broadcaster Hong Jin Kyung urges people to be careful about advertisements impersonating her on MBC's 'True Story Expedition', which aired on April 25. (Photo from MBC News)

   Most advertisements that impersonate celebrities relate to stock investments. They entice  people to invest by creating false accounts through KakaoTalk or YouTube under the name of celebrities and spreading rumors that they earned profits from these investments  for example, Kim Mi-kyung, a famous lecturer was impersonated by a scammer who created a channel on YouTube  called 'Kim Mi-kyung's Stock Investment TV.’ Kim Mi-kyung's photo is used as the channel's primary image and its videos attracted over 1,000 views by writing, 'How much will the stock rise?' Another example of misrepresenting support for a product or service happened when an impersonator created a KakaoTalk chat room in the name of model Hong Jin-kyung. The channel shared details about a site where people could invest in stocks. Many people accessed the site, invested a lot of money, and suffered huge losses. The damage caused by this type of activity is estimated to exceed 1 trillion won. As the amount of damage has increased, impacted celebrities gathered for a press conference appealing for help in putting an end to these impersonation crimes, saying, "We have taken all the measures victims can do. People should be made aware of these fake accounts and the repercussions of falling for these schemes.”

▲ Fraudulent Advertisements That Are Actually on Social Media (Photo from X)

   Despite these celebrity appeals, punishing and putting an end to the activities of celebrity impersonators is currently difficult. The criminals organize online phishing crimes from overseas and invest heavily in advertising. In other words, they are not your typical financial fraudsters, but rather voice phishing organizations. These celebrity impersonators are hard to track down, even for police, so it is almost impossible for individuals to track them. The charges against celebrity impersonators are also unclear. "It’s very difficult to identify whether impersonating a person is a crime if no damage to that person has occurred," said a police officer from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, who has been investigating charges of voice phishing. For this reason, investigations into celebrity impersonation are not making any progress. While celebrities can sue for defamation if impersonated, overseas headquarters of platforms like YouTube and Instagram can make international cooperation in investigations difficult. In other countries, some take a different approach to celebrity defamation compared to South Korea. In these countries, the law may either entirely shield celebrities from defamation or tolerate it, but it is never a criminal offense. Civil lawsuits are the only recourse in such cases. During a government inspection, The Personal Information Protection Commission, Korea Communications Commission, and Korea Telecommunications Review Commission all stated that they would respond to illegal advertisements impersonating celebrities, but it is not clear how.

▲ Entertainers Holding a Press Conference (Photo from Yonhap News)

   The Dankook Herald (DKH) interviewed Professor Oh Seung-jin from the Dept. of Law at Dankook University (DKU). According to Professor Oh, there is no specific legal definition for 'impersonating a celebrity in advertising,' but to explain it, impersonating a celebrity in advertising refers to the crime of creating accounts on platforms like YouTube or KakaoTalk using the name of a famous individual with the express purpose of deceiving consumers into investing in fraudulent stocks, resulting in financial losses for the investors. This type of criminal activity is different compared to other illegal acts such as defamation and voice phishing which involves directly receiving money by impersonating a person of authority or misrepresenting a situation to extort money fraudulently. Using the name and image of a celebrity in advertising may not immediately result in a monetary loss, making it difficult to establish a fraud case. However, if money is received and intercepted through this deception, fraud charges could be applied, he added. Regarding the question of whether aggravated penalties can be imposed for impersonating a celebrity for profit, Professor Oh explained that for penalties to apply, the fraud must be proven. Impersonation alone does not automatically lead to aggravated penalties, as fraud typically involves deceiving someone else. He then noted that currently, government and regulatory agencies do not take an active role in detecting and removing impersonation advertisements from social media platforms and online marketplaces. Instead, related companies regulate them through their internal policies. The organizations that publish such advertisements use various methods to evade detection. Therefore, it is difficult to determine what law should be applied to these deceptive advertisements.

▲ The victimized entertainer herself addressed the rumors. (Photo from Instagram)

   Professor Oh mentioned that there are no specific legal provisions solely applicable for crimes involving impersonation advertising, and they are usually punished under existing fraud laws. Furthermore, while tracking and punishing organizations that publish such advertisements is theoretically possible, it is challenging because of their cunning ways to evade detection. To regulate this type of behavior and prevent fraud from occurring, he suggested the government implement measures like those for preventing online crimes. This includes enhancing monitoring in collaboration with relevant social media companies, thoroughly tracking and punishing perpetrators once criminal activities have been identified, and confiscating illicit profits earned from the criminal acts. For individuals, since advertisements promising excessively high returns are likely to be false, they need to adopt a prudent investment approach. Preventing such incidents beforehand is challenging, so there is a need to enhance monitoring efforts and implement measures such as closing the accounts of perpetrators or imposing immediate penalties based on victim reports.

   Since there is no clear solution to the crime of impersonating a celebrity, the scale of damages continues to grow. Dankookians (Students of DKU), who regularly engage with social media platforms, are also at risk of falling victim to such crimes. At any point, anyone could become a target of an impersonation crime. Specifically, when encountering advertisements related to stock investments, it is advisable to approach them with doubt. To reduce the harm from impersonation crimes, careful evaluation of authenticity is necessary, and one should refrain from easily believing in something solely because a celebrity advertises it.