“Single’s Inferno 2” Kim Jin Young Is A Victim Of The Infamous “Security Deposit Scam” In Korea — He Reveals The Details Of What Happened

Recently, Kim Jin Young, also known as Dex, shared how he got scammed by his “landlord” when renting his current apartment.

Kim Jin Young | @dex_xeb/Instagram

On July 26, the Single’s Inferno 2 star appeared on Kian84‘s YouTube channel and showed a day in his life. Kian84 visited Kim Jin Young at his apartment and they adorable drank yogurt as a “welcome drink.”

Your browser does not support video.Kian84 (left) and Kim Jin Young (right) | @인생84/YouTube 

Kian84 then mentioned that he had read a negative article about Kim Jin Young’s jeonse scam. In Korea, there are two ways to rent out a place to live: wolse and jeonse. Wolse involves putting down a relatively small security deposit and paying a monthly rent, whereas jeonse involves putting down a hefty security deposit and not have to pay rent.

Kim Jin Young resorted to renting out his house through jeonse, and in the video, he confirmed it was true that he was scammed of his security deposit. He explained that he had put down close to ₩300 million KRW (about $235,000 USD).

| 인생84/YouTube 

Initially, there were no problems when he signed the contract with the original landlord. However, later, the owner decided to sell the house without Kim Jin Young’s knowledge.

The landlord sold the house to another person. I had no idea until the bank called me and said, ‘Hey, your landlord changed. Give us the information.’ I said, ‘Huh? What the hell are you talking about?’

— Kim Jin Young

It was only when his bank contacted him to ask information about the new landlord that he found out about the ownership change. Afterwards, Kim Jin Young had leaks in his house, and when he tried to claim repair expenses, the new “landlord” denied being the owner and said he only lent his name because he needed money urgently.

Your browser does not support video.| @인생84/YouTube  

Out of concern, Kian84 asked what Kim Jin Young was going to do, as he just lost almost ₩300 million KRW (about $235,000 USD). Then Kim Jin Young revealed that most of that money were loans.

What’s worse is about 90% of it are loans.

— Kim Jin Young

Kian84 asked if there is no way to retrieve the money, to which Kim Jin Young replied with a calm demeanor, saying that if the bank also refuses to give him the guarantee insurance, then he would just have to live in that house and consider it his own home. Kim Jin Young later shared that he had mentioned getting scammed on his own YouTube channel, and one of his fans made a comment that he told the story of being scammed so nonchalantly—as if he just “missed a subway train,” which made them laugh.

| @인생84/YouTube 

Security deposit, or jeonse, scams in Korea have been occurring frequently recently, where landlords fail to return hefty sums of money to their tenants. There have been countless victims of this jeonse scam, including Kim Jin Young. This has created a widespread fear of choosing the jeonse route when renting out a house—to the extent that the term “jeonsephobia” was created. More people are opting for wolse and paying monthly rent instead.