A customer uses gift certificates to make a purchase at a Homeplus store in Seoul. This image is not directly related to the story. (Newsis)
A customer uses gift certificates to make a purchase at a Homeplus store in Seoul. This image is not directly related to the story. (Newsis)

A woman in her 30s was found dead at a motel in eastern Seoul after reportedly struggling with debt linked to high-interest loans disguised as gift card transactions, police said Monday.

The woman was found on May 1 after staff at the motel in Dongdaemun-gu reported that she had not checked out after her scheduled departure time, according to the Dongdaemun Police Station.

Police found that the woman had used so-called gift card loans for about a month before her death as she struggled to cover living expenses.

The practice involves transactions that appear to be for ordinary gift card deals on paper, but effectively function as high-interest private loans that can exceed Korea’s legal interest rate ceiling.

The woman initially borrowed small amounts of about 500,000 won ($330), but was allegedly required to pay interest amounting to nearly half the principal within just a week, according to police.

As she repeatedly borrowed more to repay earlier debts, her total principal and interest reportedly swelled to 15 million won within a month. Converted into an annual rate, the interest would exceed 2,000 percent.

The woman was also reportedly subjected to aggressive debt collection, including dozens of calls a day as well as messages containing verbal abuse and threats.

Police said the woman had debt-related problems, but that a link between the debt and her death had not been established.

A police official said the investigation is ongoing.

This story was created with the assistance of AI. — Ed.


hnpark@heraldcorp.com