When Brazilian K-pop fan Tami spotted a social media post last month selling a rare Polaroid photo signed by ZeroBaseOne member Zhang Hao, she jumped at the opportunity.
The seller identified himself as a South Korean named Park Chae-ah, according to the Chosun Daily newspaper. She transferred the money. Then Park switched his account to private and vanished.
Tami* is far from alone.
Across Brazil , home to one of Latin America’s most passionate Korean pop culture communities, scammers have found a lucrative target in the devoted followers of South Korea’s global cultural hallyu – or “Korean wave” – exports.
The fraud has grown so brazen it has now triggered the first formal law enforcement partnership between South Korea and Brazil .