(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Joo-hwan = More than 10,000 cases of illegal programs and proxy games such as Hack and Auto that harm the fair gaming ecosystem are detected every year, but the actual investigation request rate is found to be less than 0.5%.
According to data submitted by People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Yong-geun from the Game Management Committee and the National Police Agency on the 7th, a total of 70,537 cases of illegal programs such as nuclear and auto were investigated by the Game Commission from 2020 to June of this year.
Of these, the actual number of cases detected was 42,251.
In the same period, 37,530 cases of proxy gaming, where one plays for another person in return for monetary compensation, were investigated and 28,611 cases were detected.
In total, over the past 7 years, the number of investigations reached 108,067 and the number of detections reached 71,162, with more than 10,000 cases discovered each year.
However, the actual number of cases that led to requests for investigation was a total of 339 cases, including 153 proxy games and 186 illegal programs, accounting for only 0.48% of the total number of cases detected.
In the case of illegal programs such as nuclear and auto, it was found that more than 98.7% were processed through requests for correction and cooperation.
The number of cases of proxy gaming detected was GTA 5, with 16,692 cases, followed by League of Legends (LoL) with 5,757 cases, Seven Knights 2 with 1,547 cases, and Maple Story with 868 cases.
Rep. Yoon pointed out, "As thousands to tens of thousands of illegal acts are being discovered repeatedly in certain games, it is necessary to go beyond simple monitoring and requests for correction and cooperation, as well as intensive crackdowns and linkage with investigations targeting habitual and professional sellers and illegal program production and distribution networks."
In addition, he said that there are differences in the investigation request data compiled by the Game Commission and the National Police Agency, respectively, and suggested, "It is necessary to establish an integrated case management system between agencies that can link and manage the results of the police case registration, investigation, arrest, and punishment from the detection stage of the Game Commission."
Fraud damage related to online games is also rapidly increasing.
According to data from the National Police Agency, from 2020 to July of this year, the number of cases of game fraud damage related to direct cyber transactions was 60,348, and the total damage amounted to 121.4 billion won over the six years until last year.
In particular, game fraud damage, which was KRW 6.4 billion in 2020, rapidly increased from KRW 10.5 billion in 2021, KRW 9.1 billion in 2022, and KRW 8.5 billion in 2023 to KRW 24.6 billion in 2024, and soared again to KRW 62.3 billion in 2025.
It has increased approximately 9.7 times in just 5 years, meaning that not only are the number of incidents increasing, but the amount of damage per incident is also increasing.
Rep. Yoon said, โAs habitual proxy game sales and the production and distribution of hack and auto programs are acts that directly harm innocent users and undermine trust in the entire gaming industry, stronger investigations and sanctions are needed for repeated and systematic illegal acts.โ
