More than 1,600 hotel guests in South Korea have allegedly been secretly filmed in their rooms, with the footage being live-streamed to paying customers.

Spy cameras installed in hotel rooms

According to BBC, mini cameras were allegedly installed in TVs, hair-dryer holders and sockets throughout 30 separate hotels across 10 South Korean cities.

The New York Times said the cameras were planted in rooms in the southern provinces of Yeongnam and Chungcheong.

The exact locations were not revealed.

The cameras were set up last August in 2018 in small hotels, more commonly known as motels or inns.

Apparently, a website was subsequently created in November 2018, where 803 videos were posted, allowing users to pay for full videos on a subscription basis or watch 30 second clips for free.

Overseas servers were also supposedly used to evade detection.

Two men arrested

Two men, aged 48 and 50, have since been arrested over the live streaming of unsuspecting hotel guests.

According to NYT, one of the arrested men is accused of planting cameras in some of the southern provinces, while the other allegedly operated cameras remotely and managed the overseas servers.

They allegedly earned USD$6,200 (about S$8,361) from 97 paying members before the site was taken down in March 2019.

If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 30 million won (about S$35,817).

Illicit filming in South Korea

Spy camera-related crimes, including videos that are secretly taken in toilets and changing rooms, are gaining prevalence in South Korea.

In 2017, over 5,400 people were arrested for such crimes.

About 6,800 cases of illicit filming were also reported to the South Korean police in 2018.

According to the South Korean police, however, this is the first instance of such videos being broadcast live on the internet.

Top photo via YouTube screengrab.

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