According to X-Sports News, on September 5, boy group HYBE ENHYPEN discovered that during their return from China on September 4, sasaeng fans illegally obtained their flight information. Then, these “fans” unauthorizedly registered with the airline, assigning seats to ENHYPEN members without permission. They also deliberately blocked seat changes to ensure that members sat in the seats they had chosen.
It appears to be an attempt by some extremist sasaeng fans to sit close to the performers during the flight or take unauthorized photos while they are traveling together.
On the other hand, ENHYPEN had planned to change their flight back to Korea after their China program. When they tried to book seats on the new flight, they found that some members were unable to assign seats.
After inquiring with the airline (Air China), ENHYPEN’s manager found that someone had already used some members’ personal information to register as members of the airline. In addition, the contact information had been registered with a Chinese phone number, and deliberate actions were taken to prevent seat assignments. As a result, ENHYPEN had to verify their identities at the airport and change their seats in person. The leak of their flights caused direct harm to the artists.
Previously, HYBE announced that it would take severe action against those who illegally obtain and use flight information. After identifying multiple SNS accounts that exchanged such information, HYBE collected evidence to identify the operators of the accounts and sent it to the police.
Despite these efforts, sasaeng fans continued to illegally obtain flight information. In one case, they even changed the in-flight meal of a Tomorrow X Together member, leading to ongoing incidents related to illegal flight information acquisition.
In the case of ENHYPEN, the illegal trading and unauthorized use of personal information related to their airline tickets highlights the serious violation of privacy that K-pop artists continue to suffer.
Source: Naver
