Damages from social commerce rose sharply from three cases in 2010 to 633 cases in 2011, the Korea Consumer Agency said Friday, as visitors to the online discount shopping sites more than doubled over the past year.

Ninety-five cases were reported against Eoulim Communications which runs a social commerce site named Best Place. Eighty-eight cases were filed against Groupon, followed by 66 against Ticket Monster, 60 against Namu Internet’s We Make Price, 57 against Moongssa.com, 53 against Forward Ventures LLC’s Coupang, 30 against Ticket Suda, 29 against YH Commerce, 20 against Ticket Sale and 16 against Banbala.

Only Groupon, Ticket Monster, We Make Price and Coupang are still doing business. All the others went bankrupt or shut down.

A consumer, identified by the surname Lee, reported to the KCA that she ordered 20 department store gift certificates worth 100,000 won each from a social commerce site in August and paid 600,000 won in cash, but did not get the gift certificates and the social commerce company could not be contacted.

As for Groupon, breach of contract accounted for 18.2 percent of all damages reported.

Complaints were filed against We Make Price (40 percent), Ticket Monster (31.8 percent) and Coupang (18.9 percent) for refusing to provide products, services or refunds as the coupons were no longer valid.

Groupon was most active in damage control, handling 97.7 percent of damage reports. Ticket Monster showed a low damage control rate of 57.6 percent.

The Korea Consumer Agency recommended consumers to check if a social commerce company is insured against damages and to use credit cards instead of cash for payment.

The KCA advised consumers not to be taken in by advertisements that the products are much cheaper than market prices to buy unnecessary items.

“For refunds, consumers should notify the companies of their wish to cancel the contract prior to the purchase and leave proof,” the KCA said.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)