According to X-Sports News, on September 5th, HYBE boy group ENHYPEN discovered that during their return from China on September 4th, sasaeng fans illegally obtained their flight information. Then, these “fans” unauthorizedly registered with the airline, assigning seats to ENHYPEN members without permission. Furthermore, they deliberately blocked seat changes to ensure that the members would sit in the seats they had chosen.
This appears to be an attempt by some extreme sasaeng fans to sit close to the artists on the flight or to take unauthorized photos while traveling together.
On the other hand, ENHYPEN had planned to change their flight on their way back to Korea after their schedule in China. When they tried to reserve seats on the new flight, they found that some members were unable to assign seats.
Upon inquiry with the airline (Air China), ENHYPEN’s manager discovered that someone had already used some members’ personal information to register as members with the airline. Moreover, the contact information was 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 flight information directly caused harm to the artists.
Previously, HYBE had announced that they would take strict action against those who illegally obtain and use flight information. After identifying multiple SNS accounts trading such information, HYBE collected evidence to identify the account operators and submitted it to the police.
Despite these efforts, sasaeng fans have continued to obtain flight information illegally. In one case, they even changed the in-flight meal of a member from Tomorrow X Together, leading to ongoing incidents related to the illegal acquisition of flight information.
In ENHYPEN’s case, the illegal trading and unauthorized use of personal information related to their flight tickets highlight the severe invasion of privacy that K-pop artists continue to suffer.
Source: Naver