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International Business Times
International Business Times
World
Claire LEE

Debt, Suicide, Fraud: South Koreans Hit By Real Estate Scams

South Korean police data suggests more than $1 billion is lost to jeonse real-estate scams every year (Credit: AFP)

For a decade, Park Hyeon-su lived in a windowless micro-apartment in Seoul, working double shifts and saving every penny for a deposit on a nice home. Then real estate scammers took his money.

South Korea's rental housing market features a unique system known as "jeonse" in which tenants pay huge deposits -- sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars -- then get to live rent-free for years, before getting all their money back when they move out.

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