Downloaded from YTS.MX
THE FOLLOWING FILM CONTAINS GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
INCLUDING AGAINST MINORS, WHICH MAY BE DISTURBING FOR SOME VIEWERS
TO PROTECT THE VICTIMS, ALL EXPLICIT PHOTOS AND VIDEOS
IN THE FILM HAVE BEEN REENACTED,
WHILE TEXT MESSAGES AND SPECIFIC LOCATIONS HAVE BEEN CHANGED
FREE SHIPPING
NEW MESSAGE
GODGOD YOU ARE NOT FOLLOWING GODGOD
YOUR PHOTOS HAVE BEEN LEAKED CHECK THE LINK BELOW
WHAT? STOP JOKING AROUND LOL WHO ARE YOU?
I'M SERIOUS… I'M LETTING YOU KNOW BECAUSE I'M WORRIED ABOUT YOU
THESE ARE PRIVATE PHOTOS
DO YOU KNOW WHO UPLOADED THESE PHOTOS?
DAEUN GIRLS' MIDDLE SCHOOL 9TH GRADE, CLASS 2, PARK SO-RA
HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?
HEY SO-RA, DO AS I SAY OR I'LL SEND THE PHOTOS TO EVERYONE AT SCHOOL
WHAT?
INSTALL TELEGRAM AND LOG IN
WHAT'S TELEGRAM?
JUST INSTALL IT
TELEGRAM
DOWNLOAD
TELEGRAM
MY FILES, TELEGRAM, TWITTER
4TH ROOM GODGOD IS TYPING
LIVE SLAVE SHOW
WE HAVE A NEW SLAVE GUYS LOL
GODGOD'S SLAVE SHOW BEGINS
THIS IS GOING TO BE FUN
PARK SO-RA HAS JOINED TELEGRAM
TODAY
YOUR HOME ADDRESS
1522-8932, HAGIK-DONG, INCHEON YOUR DAD'S PHONE NUMBER 010-2674-XXXX
I'M SURE YOUR DAD AND YOUR FRIENDS WOULD LOVE TO SEE THESE PHOTOS
PARK SO-RA IS TYPING…
I'LL DO AS YOU SAY. PLEASE DON'T SEND THE PHOTOS
TAKE A NAKED PHOTO OF YOURSELF DON'T COVER YOUR FACE
IF YOU DON'T ANSWER IN 10 SECONDS, I'M SENDING OUT THE PHOTOS LOL
PARK SO-RA: PLEASE…
R U FOR REAL? I SAID NUDES WANT ME TO SEND THE FUCKING PHOTOS?
PARK SO-RA: PLEASE DON'T
SEND MORE I'LL GIVE YOU 5 SECONDS
Dozens of victims, including minors,
were blackmailed into filming sexual videos…
Created sexually exploitative videos of minors…
-via Telegram… -via Telegram…
-The Nth Room… -The Nth Room…
-The Nth Room case…
SEND THE PHOTOS IN 5 SECONDS
JOINED THE GROUP USING THE INVITE LINK
The victims' personal info was used to force them to comply.
10TH AND 11TH ROOMS HAVE BEEN HARD FORKED
TELEGRAM AND THE NTH ROOMS ROSE TO PROMINENCE
KIM WAN, JOURNALIST THE HANKYOREH
It was a Sunday morning.
I was having a relaxing Sunday, playing with my kids.
How can you lose to him?
I was also thinking about what articles I wanted to write
the following week.
But I suddenly got a call from work
and was asked to check the tip-off we had received via email.
REPORTING THE DISTRIBUTION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY ON TELEGRAM
THE HANKYOREH
Back then, I had no idea something like that was happening on Telegram,
and I couldn't figure out why this person would send us such a tip-off.
Honestly, I wasn't even sure if this was something that was worth following up.
The Internet and child pornography
had already been a major issue for some time.
So I was doubtful whether it was actually newsworthy.
MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRL MOANING IN FRONT OF HER COUSIN
#LOLI #ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 12-YEAR-OLD SLEEPING, SO HOT
It was a Sunday, and only a few people were at work.
So I thought I'd work on it that day and be done with it.
That's what I had in mind when I started covering it.
REPORTING THE DISTRIBUTION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY ON TELEGRAM
REPORTING PARK CHAN-SU, A JUNIOR AT A FOREIGN LANGUAGE HIGH SCHOOL,
WHO DISTRIBUTED CHILD PORNOGRAPHY ON TELEGRAM
3 ATTACHMENTS
The informant stated that a high school student
was continuously distributing child pornography
in a Telegram chat room that had around 9,000 members.
The informant even gave me the details, everything from the IP that was used…
down to the exact address of the perpetrator's location.
I was told that the perpetrator was
attending a foreign language high school in Incheon.
As he was attending a prestigious high school,
it was highly likely that he was regarded as a model student.
That fact seemed to set the story apart from other similar cases,
so I ran the story that night.
EXCLUSIVE: SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE VIDEOS CIRCULATING ON TELEGRAM
ASSUMED TO BE RUN BY TEENS 19,000 CHILD PORNOGRAPHY LINKS SHARED
At first, I thought a report regarding the Telegram chat room run by teens
used to share and distribute pornography,
and the news of the main suspect being arrested the next day
would have been the end of the story.
INBOX
YOU'VE BEEN DOXXED LOL CHECK TELEGRAM
THEY HAVE YOUR PERSONAL INFO
CHECK THE LINK BELOW
THEY'RE DISTRIBUTING YOUR PERSONAL INFO IN A TELEGRAM CHAT ROOM
A few people told me that my personal info was being leaked
THE HANKYOREH REPORTER KIM WAN
EXCLUSIVE, MY ASS HE JUST STOLE SOMEONE ELSE'S WORK
AND MAKES HEADLINE NEWS LOL
I was confused
and was quite taken aback by what was happening.
REPORTER KIM WAN IS AN ILBE MEMBER AND A PEDOPHILE
It began with my photos.
The ones you can find when you look my name up,
so I thought it wasn't a big deal.
But there were photos of my children too.
So my family and I began to get very anxious and worried.
CHOCO: WE'VE GOT HIS FACEBOOK NONO: LOL
HOHOHONG: BASED
EVENT: CATCH WAN NOVEMBER 11, 2019 - INDEFINITELY
EVENT: CATCH WAN
FIND OUT HIS DATE OF BIRTH, THE NAMES OF HIS WIFE AND KIDS, OR THEIR PHONE NUMBERS
PRIZE: A CHANCE TO ORDER A SLAVE TO TAKE 1 PHOTO THAT YOU WANT
The fact that an anonymous group of people was launching an attack against me
really stressed me out.
OH YEON-SEO, JOURNALIST THE HANKYOREH
At a meeting, we were told that a new task force would be formed
with Wan as the leader
and that about two people would be working with him on that team.
I didn't volunteer to join the team
and I didn't think I'd be asked to join them.
I never thought I'd be
a part of that task force.
To be honest, I was scared because I saw them getting hold of
and distributing Wan's personal info after he published that story.
I understood very well how important this task was
but I was afraid to jump on it.
But at the same time, I was intrigued.
I had mixed feelings about it initially,
but because Wan is such a competent reporter,
I thought I could just ride his coattails.
I didn't take the job that seriously at first
when I heard that I'd be working with him.
After going through everything, I was most shocked by the fact
that the photos and videos of the victims were shared in the chat room
along with the photos that were taken in front of the victims' homes.
Like, this is where so-and-so lives.
I believe that the purpose of those acts
was to show off how much control they had over the victims' lives.
I found that very horrific. That was what shocked me the most.
The task force was formed last year on November 13.
I still remember the date.
I joined the Telegram chat rooms and started monitoring them.
A lot of people who had read our article sent us numerous emails
saying we should look into Baksa Rooms
and how that was the worst of them all.
A TIP-OFF ABOUT BAKSA
YOU'RE BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE BAKSA IS THE REAL DEAL
KIM WAN, YOU LOSER YOU NEED TO GO AFTER BAKSA!
BAKSA IS THE EVIL MASTERMIND BEHIND IT ALL LOOK INTO HIM
BAKSA
That's when I thought I should look into the Baksa Rooms.
When I was wondering how I should go about covering Baksa,
someone called "Joker" emailed me.
NEW
We were cautious about contacting him
because I knew my personal info was circulating in their chat rooms.
Plus, it was difficult to determine whether or not he was really an informant.
We called him on our office phone, and he said he was in Daegu.
He asked us to meet him in front of a subway station.
We believed that Baksa's men
could be among those who contacted us with a tip-off.
So we had to be more careful when meeting people offline.
We were nervous that they might bring others along when meeting us.
So we only communicated via email and we even told him in the emails
what we would be wearing on the day of the meet-up.
Then Wan and I went to Daegu to meet him.
BANWOLDANG STATION
We decided to meet at one of the exits of Banwoldang station.
BANWOLDANG STATION
Joker said he'd be wearing a white puffer jacket.
I was wearing a gray coat,
but I told him I'd be wearing a black one.
I told Yeon-seo that if something happens…
For instance, Baksa's men
could potentially attack us and physically harm us.
So I told Yeon-seo to keep her distance while l evaluate the situation.
I was trying to look at what was going on while hiding.
To see if he brought someone along and if he was actually an informant.
But, incidentally, while we were waiting, there was a minor car accident.
So there was a huge fuss right in front of the station.
People gathered asking if people were okay and stuff.
So we were thinking, "What do we do?"
From his outward appearance…
Criminals don't always look like obvious criminals,
but he looked too ordinary like an average young man
you'd see on the streets.
He couldn't even look us in the eye.
So we all went to a cafe to talk.
JOKER WHISTLE-BLOWER
In the world of Telegram, Baksa was a god-like figure.
I sent Wan an email
telling him about the types of chat rooms there were.
JOURNALIST KIM WAN, SUBSCRIBE
Joker first contacted us saying that someone he knew was a victim of Baksa.
So, as a journalist,
I thought I would be able to interview a victim.
Someone I knew contacted me.
She said she was in some kind of trouble and wanted to meet up, so we did.
Then she told me about everything she had been going through, crying.
She told me about those chat rooms and everything else.
That's why I joined one of those rooms.
The first thing I saw there were nude photos,
and they were watermarked.
BAKSA
CERTIFIED BY BAKSA BAKSA'S SLAVE
It was like how people add watermarks in photos or videos
for copyright purposes.
Baksa did it to show people that he was the one
who created the content he was sharing.
It'd say "Baksa"
or "Baksa's victim."
Some of them said "slave."
BAKSA'S SLAVE CERTIFIED BAKSA'S SLAVE
BAKSA
TELEGRAM
Baksa usually approached women who were looking for jobs or needed money
and pretended he could help them get a job to get a conversation going.
FIT MODEL 2~8 MILLION WON OR MORE INQUIRIES: TELEGRAM K8GOOSE
That's how he lured them into joining Telegram
because most people don't know what Telegram is.
BAKSA: HELLO
HELLO
Baksa contacted the victims claiming he was the middleman
and asked them for sample photos.
Then the victims wound send photos of themselves.
At first, the victims would take normal photos of themselves fully dressed
or photos of themselves in revealing undergarments.
BAKSA: YOU'RE VERY PRETTY YOU'LL MAKE A GREAT FIT MODEL
HMM… COULD I GET SOME SHOTS OF YOUR BODY TOO?
CHANG EUN-JO, BROADCASTING WRITER JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT
At first, the victims were asked to make this hand sign.
And after that…
He told the victims he needed their bank account numbers
and other details to wire them the money.
You usually provide proof of identity when you work part-time,
so they gave him their personal info without question.
I heard that when he got the photos of the victims' ID cards,
he started blackmailing them and asked for more revealing photos.
Your photo could be leaked, and he already had your address.
The victims were then exposed to the threat of being harmed even further
since a bunch of anonymous men now knew where they lived.
After obtaining the victims' photos and info,
his relentless harassment and threats began.
I've been trying hard to get those videos out of my head.
I remember two victims who seemed very young.
CHOI KWANG-IL, PROGRAM DIRECTOR JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT
They were saying among themselves, "Do we have to do this?"
They were in a public restroom.
A very young-looking child licked the floor tiles
and said, "I can't do this anymore."
I remember those videos…
and the looks on their faces.
They really didn't want to do it, but they were forcing themselves to smile.
In total, I think I saw around 10 to 20 victims.
It was repulsive.
Just…
I don't know how to explain it, but seeing the video made me irritated
and angry.
There were so many pens stuffed into female genitals.
There was a photo of it.
Why would anyone take a picture of that? Why do such a thing?
These weren't illegally filmed sex tapes
that were watched for voyeuristic purposes.
The women
had to carry out certain missions that were given to them.
They were told to perform these grotesque, bizarre acts,
and everyone in the chat room watched them together.
And before that,
he would share the victims' personal information in the chat.
And everyone in the chat would share their plans to harass the victims.
BAKSA ROOM, 1,750 MEMBERS
BAKSA: KIM JI-HYE
UNIT 302, 609-21 GONGHWA-DONG, NOWON-GU, SEOUL
SANGSANG: LOL NONO: I'M GOING TO LOOK IT UP ON THE MAP
609 GONGHWA-DONG, NOWON-GU, SEOUL
SEARCH
SANGSANG: WHO WANTS TO GO TO HER PLACE WITH ME?
NONO: LOL HOHOHONG: LET'S GO RAPE HER
SHE'S PROBABLY LOOKING FORWARD TO IT SHE LOOKS AS IF SHE'D LOVE IT
STREAM IT FOR US WHEN YOU GET THERE
I once saw the chat room members harassing one of the victims together in real-time.
BAKSA: WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG?
TAKE A PHOTO IN THE BATHROOM
NOT THERE YET?
TAKE A PHOTO OF YOURSELF NAKED IN THE STAIRWELL, RIGHT NOW
When the victim refused to do as he said,
Baska kept threatening her and trying to convince her repeatedly.
Then he invited others into the chat room,
and all those people started attacking her.
It was really shocking to watch.
JOINED THE GROUP USING THE INVITE LINK
CHAECHISEU: HUMILIATE HER
HASO: I WANT TO SEE HER LICK A TOILET SEAT
HORIRI: MAKER HER CRY ON HER KNEES
LOL THIS IS AWESOME
HORIRI: HER FACE IS NOT MY TYPE
SEOKSA: SHOW US ANOTHER SLAVE HOHOHONG: I'LL GO FIRST IF WE RAPE HER
NONO: OUTDOOR HUMILIATION KIMPIAO: BAKSA, YOU'RE THE MAN
The victims obviously felt uneasy about it and thought it was strange.
When I say "strange,"
first, you have to know about this feature on Telegram.
The victims sent photos of themselves
because they were told all the photos would be deleted after they were seen.
They're supposed to be deleted automatically.
However, when the victims said "no" and refused to do as they were told,
they were presented with all the photos that they had sent previously.
TELEGRAM
NEW MESSAGE
Then he'd keep saying,
"If you take this photo, I'll delete the others."
And there were many teenage victims.
They forced the victims take 50 to 60 photos in an hour.
But once the photos were taken and sent, there was no going back.
THE CREATOR OF THE BAKSA ROOMS
CREATED SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE VIDEOS AND EXCHANGED THEM FOR CRYPTOCURRENCY
We decided to focus our investigation on Baksa
and started monitoring his chat room.
Then we noticed that a lot of people kept asking
where they could find the Nth Room content.
WHERE DO YOU GET THE STUFF FROM THE NTH ROOMS?
NTH ROOM
That's when we first found out about the Nth Room.
We were wondering what the Nth Room was, so we looked into it and found out
that someone called "Godgod" had been engaging in similar illegal activities
for much longer than Baksa.
At the time, we didn't know what they were exactly.
But while Yeon-seo was doing her research
after the special task force had been formed,
we discovered that someone had already reported on the Nth Room.
2019, EXCELLENCE AWARD
DO YOU SELL PORN VIDEOS FEATURING MINORS?
CHAT ROOMS THAT SHARE ILLEGAL CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
THEIR INTEREST WAS THE NUMBERED ROOMS
INFILTRATED THE TELEGRAM CHAT ROOMS FOR ABOUT A MONTH
SAVED UP EVIDENCE OF PEOPLE SHARING THE LINKS TO THESE ROOMS
ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES RAMPANT ON TELEGRAM BY TEAM FLAME
It immediately piqued my interest.
Then we learned it was a piece submitted to a journalism competition
by a team of student journalists called Team Flame.
I was curious and wanted to meet them.
I told them that I would visit them immediately wherever they are
and they said they were in Yeouido.
YEOUIDO STATION
We met and went to a cafe right by Yeouido station
and sat at a table in the corner.
BUL, OUTREACHER TEAM FLAME
I'm Bul from Team Flame.
I'm Dan from Team Flame.
DAN, OUTREACHER TEAM FLAME
I was an aspiring journalist,
and Bul, who worked with me, was a university student
who also wanted to be a journalist.
I took a journalism course
and in that course, I wrote a lot of articles about illegal filming.
One day, my professor told me
about a journalism contest and suggested that Bul and I enter.
We thought that the perpetrators we were about to report on
would definitely try to find information about us once we published the article.
That's why we work undercover.
It's just like how detectives don't want their faces revealed.
We feel the same way.
Keeping our identities hidden helps us feel more at ease.
At first, we decided to report on the issue of illegally filmed videos
and did a lot of research
to find websites where such videos were shared.
SPYCAM
The search terms I used included "spycam,"
"high school girls," "middle school girls,"
and "public exposure."
Those were my main searches.
Then I stumbled upon
a website called "AVSnoop."
I found it about 10, or maybe 15 minutes after I started researching.
GATEWAY TO THE NTH ROOMS
RUN BY WATCHMAN WHO PROMOTED THE NTH ROOMS
AND HELPED SPREAD THE CONTENT
When we infiltrated the site in July of 2019,
Watchman was active as the site's owner.
And I found a post about the 'Number Room' incident.
It described what the Nth Room victims went through in detail.
Watchman had listed all the victims from the first room to the eighth.
It included their names, ages, their presumed addresses,
along with info on their schools
and even what grade and class they were in.
It also stated how many people were in each of the rooms.
And there were details about each victim like the shape of their breasts,
their figure, their mannerisms, and things like that.
Even as I was reading it,
I couldn't believe that it was actually happening in Korea.
After that, we felt that we had to see for ourselves whether it was true.
About five hours after we began monitoring the chat room,
one of the perpetrators said that
anyone who changed their profile picture to an anime character
would be given the link to an Nth Room.
ANIME CHARACTER BREASTS
KOR SUBS, DAVE A LITE UTOPIA #81
SAVE IMAGE AS
CHANGE PROFILE PHOTO
CAN I GET THE NTH ROOM LINK TOO? PLEEEEASE
ANGDDUIBANG: YOUR PROFILE PIC
I CHANGED IT
ANGDDUIBANG: THE TSUNDERE FROM DAVE A LITE
ANGDDUIBANG: SHE'S MY FAVORITE
LOL
As soon as I entered the Nth Room,
the first thing I saw was videos of nude bodies.
They were videos of young girls nude.
Some of the victims were ordered to write "slave" on their bodies.
SLAVE
Also words like "personal pussy," "personal toilet," and "bitch."
Sometimes, they were ordered to carve such words on their bodies with knives,
not just to write them with pens.
They were ordered to read aloud phrases such as "I'm Godgod's slave."
One of the most gruesome things I saw was
a victim being ordered to pierce her body with a needle and string.
Then she was told to hang things off the string.
We saw an announcement in the first room posted by Godgod, which read
"I am sharing these videos because the slaves in the videos
refused to do as I said.
I won't share the videos of the slaves who obey my orders, so don't worry."
GODGOD ANNOUNCEMENT
THESE VIDEOS AND PHOTOS WERE OBTAINED BY THREATENING THE GIRLS
THEY DISOBEYED ME AND RAN AWAY SO YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH THEM
IF YOU ARE WORRIED IF I HAVE PHOTOS OF YOU
YOUR PHOTOS WON'T BE SHARED AS LONG AS YOU DO AS I SAY
SO THERE IS NO NEED TO WORRY
THE CREATOR OF THE NTH ROOMS
PRODUCED MULTIPLE SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE VIDEOS
NTH ROOMS
JOINED THE GROUP USING THE INVITE LINK
NEW MESSAGE
GODGOD YOU ARE NOT FOLLOWING GODGOD
YOUR PHOTOS HAVE BEEN LEAKED CHECK THE LINK BELOW
Godgod would send the victims a link to a site
and claim that their photos were being shared there.
YOUR PHOTOS HAVE BEEN LEAKED CHECK THE LINK BELOW
WHAT? STOP JOKING AROUND LOL WHO ARE YOU?
I'M SERIOUS… I'M LETTING YOU KNOW BECAUSE I'M WORRIED ABOUT YOU
The moment they click on the link, they'd be phished.
DO YOU KNOW WHO UPLOADED THESE PHOTOS?
That's how their personal information, such as their ID and address,
ended up in Godgod's hands.
YOUR HOME ADDRESS 1522-8932, HAGIK-DONG, INCHEON
YOUR DAD'S PHONE NUMBER 010-2674-XXXX
I'M SURE YOUR DAD AND YOUR FRIENDS WOULD LOVE TO SEE THESE PHOTOS
I'LL DO AS YOU SAY. PLEASE DON'T SEND THE PHOTOS
SEND MORE I'LL GIVE YOU 5 SECONDS
I thought I should report it to the police right away
if this was really what was going on.
We believed we should inform the police immediately.
The article came second.
That's how we came to report it to the police.
GANGWON PROVINCIAL POLICE
We were on a work trip at the time.
We were traveling across the country a lot.
My colleagues at the Chuncheon Police Station
told me about this new type of crime that had been occurring on Telegram
and that it seemed pretty widespread.
The case was a little different from what we usually handled.
The number of videos that were being distributed
was shocking even for someone like me.
I could tell it wouldn't be a simple case where we track down just one suspect.
The thing about Telegram is that the chat rooms are flexible,
in the sense that they're constantly deleted and created again.
So apart from the chat room links that we had obtained,
we couldn't get the authorization to access the other rooms.
It was very difficult to get into the other rooms.
So we got help from Team Flame,
and they gave us the links to the other chat rooms.
The officers suggested
that we start a chat room
where we could share the evidence that we had collected.
THIS IS THE CYBER INVESTIGATION UNIT AT GANGWON PROVINCIAL POLICE
TELEGRAM CASE INFO CAN BE SHARED HERE
HELLO, OFFICER
I'LL UPLOAD ALL THE SCREENSHOTS OF THE NTH ROOM CHATS HERE
THIS USER HAS BEEN VERY ACTIVE IN THE CHAT ROOM RECENTLY
A user named "Rabbit," who joined the chat room after we did,
became the manager of the room with over thousands of members
in just a little over a week after joining the chat.
TIKTIK: LOLIS ARE SO HOT OI: RABBIT'S WORKING HARD LOL
RABBIT: I DON'T DO GIRLS OVER 12
I ALSO HAVE A VIDEO OF AN 8-YEAR-OLD I'LL SHARE IT LATER TONIGHT
BY THE WAY, ANY OF YOU LOSERS WANNA MEET UP TODAY?
RAN A CHAT ROOM DERIVED FROM THE NTH ROOMS
DISTRIBUTED NUMEROUS SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE VIDEOS OF CHILDREN
Rabbit would readily spill his personal info in the chat room
as if the chat room members were his university friends.
He said he started university in 2018
and that he was attending…
I ATTEND A NATIONAL UNIVERSITY IN JEONNAM
GOOGLE MAPS
NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES IN JEONNAM
He uploaded a photo showing
that he was standing at a subway platform in Sangmu Station.
A photo of a board showing the subway's arrival.
CURRENT TIME: 11:22 SANGMU
RABBIT: IF ANYONE COMES TO THIS STARBUCKS RIGHT NOW, COFFEE'S ON ME
He told people to meet him at the Sangmu Starbucks branch
and even sent a photo of the Starbucks.
Then after about 30 minutes, Rabbit said…
RABBIT: WHY ISN'T ANYONE COMING?
TIKTIK: IT'LL TAKE ME 6 HRS TO GET THERE, YOU RETARD
OI: GWANGJU? ENJOY YOUR COFFEE ALONE LOL
He said he got the physical examination for the draft on Thursday
and said, "I'm fucked. I got shitty results."
So I asked him about the results. "Why? What happened?"
RABBIT: MY EYESIGHT WAS MINUS 3
THEN WHY DO YOU NEED A REEXAMINATION?
RABBIT: BLOOD IN URINE
He disclosed his personal information down to the little details in the chat.
He even sent a photo of his physical exam results.
And it said "Chosun University Hospital" on it.
Based on such information, we felt that we could catch him.
So we asked him the date of his second physical examination.
WHEN'S YOUR REEXAMINATION?
RABBIT: AUGUST 7
We sent all the information we had gathered to the police.
HERE'S MORE INFO ON RABBIT
We wanted to know what had happened after that, so we called the police
and asked them if they caught him.
But they just said they'll let us know soon.
We went to the site and verified everything.
Then we interviewed the residents in the area
to make sure that he actually lived there.
We picked an area to investigate based on the subway line
and the location of the university.
And we also checked with the hospital where he had his physical examination
to see if this person actually existed.
All the information seemed trustworthy.
We verified that the person in question does exist and confirmed his identity.
Two days after that, I was studying in the library
and I saw the police's number pop up on my phone.
They said they caught him.
I started jumping around excitedly in front of the library, screaming.
I was so excited that I didn't care what others might think of me.
FIRST NTH ROOM PARTAKER TO BE ARRESTED
Rabbit was practically a stooge compared to the other perpetrators.
Although we managed to get Rabbit arrested,
there were still many others actively committing crimes on Telegram.
So we felt that Rabbit's arrest wasn't enough.
Since it was just one arrest and the Nth Rooms were still rampant,
we believed that the issue should be made known to a wider public.
NTH ROOMS
People in the chat room were wondering who this "Godgod" was
and how he managed to sexually exploit so many victims.
They were curious as to how he created and distributed
so much sexually exploitative content that was considered rare.
People in the chat room often discussed his identity.
Some said they looked up to Godgod.
1ST ROOM: 1,750 MEMBERS GUGURI: GODGOD, YOU'RE A LEGEND LOL
But there were others saying that he went too far
all the while enjoying the content shared in the Nth Rooms.
SKEK: BUT HE IS FUCKING SICK IN THE HEAD LOL
TORLRJ: HOW IS GODGOD GETTING ALL THESE VIDEOS ANYWAY?
AGMUN: THAT FUCKER WENT AWOL THO
DJEJ: MAYBE HE'S BEEN BUSTED?
But because Godgod had disappeared
after distributing such videos,
the chat room members were all interested in finding out who Godgod really was.
EKFFL01: LOL NOBODY KNOWS
RLQNS.: I WONDER WHO THE HELL HE IS
Before Godgod disappeared, he sent messages such as
"My mom told me to get off the phone" or "My mom told me to go to bed."
MY MOM TOLD ME TO GET OFF THE PHONE
MY MOM TOLD ME TO GO TO BED
I LIVE IN A SCHOOL DORM
I'M OFF TO PLAY MAPLESTORY
IM IN 12TH GRADE, SO I GOTTA STUDY
I HAVE TO STUDY FOR CSAT SO I'M QUITTING TELEGRAM
WILL YOU DELETE ALL OF YOUR CHAT HISTORY AND LEAVE THE CHANNEL?
EXCLUSIVE IN-DEPTH REPORT ON THE NTH ROOMS
SEXUAL EXPLOITATION ON TELEGRAM
WE RECEIVED A TIP-OFF ABOUT SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE VIDEOS AND PHOTOS OF WOMEN,
INCLUDING CHILDREN AND TEENS, BEING DISTRIBUTED ON TELEGRAM.
WE BEGAN INVESTIGATING THE SECRET ROOMS THE PERPETRATORS RAN OVER TWO WEEKS
I was so sure of it. I felt confident that we could catch them.
I often said to Yeon-seo
that they would definitely get arrested if we wrote the article this way.
We knew they would have left traces.
We were sure we could catch them within the year.
We even talked about how it would become
the biggest issue of the year if we caught them.
NTH ROOMS RAMPANT ON TELEGRAM
BAKSA AND HIS SEXUAL EXPLOITATION ROOMS LOSER TURNED POWERFUL IMAGINARY RULER
RAN CRYPTOCURRENCY-ONLY SECRET ROOMS
FROM TEASER ROOMS TO EXPENSIVE MEMBERSHIP ROOMS
THE SECRET CHAT ROOM MEMBERS ARE AFTER THE MEDIA JACKALS
LURED WOMEN WITH JOB OFFERS AND THREATENED THEM TO SEND NUDE PHOTOS
We had hoped that the press would make this issue public.
When The Hankyoreh contacted us,
we finally felt like the case was going to be in the public spotlight.
And we were really looking forward to it.
TO IMAGINE SUCH CONTENT WOULD BE STORED ON COUNTLESS MEN'S PHONES AND HARD DRIVES
AS TROPHIES MADE ME SICK TO MY STOMACH
IN THAT WORLD,
WOMEN WERE NOTHING BUT OBJECTS TO BE EXPLOITED AND MOCKED
THE HANKYOREH
SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE VIDEOS CIRCULATING ON TELEGRAM
The article was on the front page as the major story of the day.
so we believed that many journalists would take interest in the issue.
Temperatures have suddenly dropped this morning.
Following the rain that brought the temperatures down.
A cold wave advisory has been issued in the capital area.
It's -1.1°C in Seoul this morning
and it's much colder than yesterday.
But nothing really changed.
It didn't get much attention. People didn't pay attention to it.
It was just seen as another violence case against women.
After the article was published, the whole society seemed to be wondering,
"Why did The Hankyoreh put this on the front page?"
I was really puzzled.
I was sure it deserved more attention but no one seemed to care.
It was not at all what I had expected.
EARJING: WAN PUBLISHED A FOLLOW-UP ARTICLE
FFF: IT'S MORE LIKE A REVIEW, NOT AN ARTICLE
ATOOARI: THEY CAN'T CATCH US ON TELEGRAM ANYWAY
WOORI: WE'RE FAMOUS NOW LET'S CELEBRATE!
SSUN: ARE THERE ANY JOURNALISTS HERE? HELLO LOL
JE JO: MR. JOURNALIST, MAKE ME FAMOUS TOO
The managers of the chat rooms that derived from the Baksa Rooms
sent us mocking messages, asking us to promote their chat rooms as well.
Baksa changed his ID to something like,
"The only one The Hankyoreh promoted."
And the chat room name was changed to something like,
"The only chat room in the media spotlight."
We were mocked and ridiculed.
There were people saying
that they joined the chat rooms after reading our article.
Seeing that happen made me upset.
It was either after our articles had been published
or sometime during its serialization.
Baksa suddenly uploaded a photo of a victim in his chat room.
He said he'd call the victim "a victim of The Hankyoreh."
It was a photo of someone
standing in a strange pose bending forward.
And there was a watermark on it that said "The Hankyoreh's first victim."
THE HANKYOREH'S FIRST VICTIM
From what we know,
those photos had never been shared in the rooms before.
So it was his way of saying he had more photos of the victims
and that he'd upload more if we kept publishing articles about him.
I guess you could say he was blackmailing us in a way.
By saying that he will be calling them "The Hankyoreh's victims,"
he was warning us that The Hankyoreh would be responsible for all future victims.
It was really scary.
If that had happened before we released the article,
I think I would have had second thoughts about publishing the article.
For the first time, I thought that maybe we should stop.
That's what Baksa probably wanted.
At that time, one of the victims told me
she had learned that tens of thousands of people were in these chat rooms
that kept appearing and disappearing over and over.
She felt that she could cross paths
with people who were in the Nth Rooms while out and about,
so she was too afraid to even leave her house.
For the first time,
I felt like I was just fighting thin air.
It was as if I was fighting against this illusory world that Baksa was in,
not Baksa himself.
It was a lonely fight.
Honestly, I was very demotivated,
and I didn't have the energy to continue.
I felt like I was trying to do something that was impossible,
and I kept thinking maybe I should just give up.
I felt like there was nothing I could do and that I should just go on with my life.
I started feeling as if my brain was contaminated,
and as if my heart had been tainted.
That's what made me decide to stop monitoring the chat rooms.
HOHOHONG: I'M GONNA ASK FOR A HANDJOB GO TAKE A NUDE SELFIE IN THE BATHROOM
SANGSANG: LET'S GO RAPE HER
I'M SORRY I REALLY CAN'T DO THIS
WILL YOU DELETE ALL OF YOUR CHAT HISTORY AND LEAVE THE CHANNEL?
LEAVE CHANNEL
NOVEMBER 2019
JANUARY 2020
2 MONTHS LATER
CHANG EUN-JO, BROADCASTING WRITER JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT
CHOI KWANG-IL, PROGRAM DIRECTOR JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT
JTBC STATION
JEONG JAE-WON, PROGRAM DIRECTOR SBS'S Y-STORY
SBS STATION
I was shocked when I read the article published by The Hankyoreh in November.
But at the time, I didn't think we could investigate it any further.
However, people who believed it was a serious issue
posted a lot of tweets on Twitter with the hashtag "Nth Room case."
Even though the mainstream media wasn't paying attention to the case,
many women on Twitter
were already aware of the seriousness of the issue.
The producer in charge didn't like the topic very much.
He said the case didn't seem different from other similar issues such as
the distribution of illegally filmed pornography on file-sharing sites.
At first, when we were thinking of covering this case on our show…
CHOI KWANG-IL PROGRAM DIRECTOR, JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT
…I couldn't believe it was real.
I thought we should somehow get in contact with Baksa.
So I sent messages in the chat rooms that I'd been investigating,
asking people to contact us.
I asked people to contact me if they knew anything about Baksa or Godgod,
and even Baksa and Godgod themselves if they read this message.
HELLO, THIS IS Y-STORY
PLEASE CONTACT US IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION ON GODGOD OR BAKSA.
I went through the screenshots that Ms. Chang wanted me to go through
and read The Hankyoreh's articles about the issue and the victims.
As I was going through those things,
I couldn't believe something like that was actually happening.
So I went to meet Kim Wan, the journalist who had covered the issue.
He told me about everything he had gone through while investigating the issue.
He told me how tough the process was and how vicious Baksa is.
He told me all about how Baksa humiliated him.
He told me everything.
I told everyone this wasn't ordinary pornography.
I told them that it was abuse.
I strongly insisted that we cover it on our show.
I thought the issue could bring down the whole country.
I came to think that it was an issue we had to cover.
So…
I really pushed for it.
CONTACT JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT TEAM IF YOU HAVE ANY INFO ON BAKSA OR BAKSA'S ROOMS
BAKSA: U LOOKING FOR ME?
Have we ever had a criminal contact us first?
Never.
Baksa firmly believed that he'd never get caught.
He blindly trusted that Telegram would keep him protected.
That's probably why he got in touch with the press first.
To bluff or gloat, so to speak.
I mean, there's no reason for him to do that.
BAKSA IS TYPING…
I'M BAKSA
His first message was, "You really the Spotlight guy?"
He was using the kind of language
used by a certain online community full of scumbags.
I had to be polite to him.
And his attitude suddenly changed.
He acted like he was old and called me Mr. Choi.
He asked me to call him Mr. Bak.
PRIVATE INVESTIGATION AGENCY MR. BAK
I RUN A PRIVATE INVESTIGATION AGENCY
I ALSO SELL DRUGS ON THE DARK WEB
He said he had his own gang overseas.
He asked, "If you were asked to shoot someone, would you do it?"
He said he'd do it if it benefited him.
That's what he told me.
"I'm a loan shark."
"My passport got canceled."
"I have my own gang."
He said he was hiding in Cambodia.
I pretended not to know anything and asked him where he was.
And he said, "I'm in Cambodia. Did you not know that?"
CAMBODIA
He said he was in China.
CHINA
So I told him I was willing to go there to meet him
and that it wasn't a problem at all.
BAKSA IS TYPING…
We were talking for a while,
but then he suddenly went quiet for about ten minutes.
He said he got a package delivery.
So I asked him if there was a similar delivery system as Korea
in Cambodia as well.
Then he got upset and told me not to look down on Cambodia.
He was like, "Come and meet me if you can."
It was during the Lunar New Year holiday.
He said, "I have a lot of free time because of the holiday."
I asked, "Isn't it Chinese New Year's there?"
"Everyone must be busy celebrating. Aren't you busy?"
Then he suddenly said he was actually in Cambodia.
While we were talking,
I asked him what time it was in Cambodia, and he got upset.
He'd brag about the things he's done.
And when we laughed him off
or showed that we didn't believe him,
he'd reveal stuff about himself.
He even showed us his Bitcoin account.
He said he'd make a deal
with me, Jeong Jae-won.
He said if we went ahead and aired the show,
he'd make one of the victims, one of his "slaves"
who he had been sexually exploiting,
take her own life by throwing herself off the roof of the SBS building.
BAKSA: A WOMAN WILL EITHER THROW HERSELF OFF THE ROOF
OR SET HERSELF ON FIRE IF YOU BROADCAST ANYTHING ABOUT ME
He said he'd win if he did as he said,
and he'd lose if he failed to keep his word.
I met Kim Wan when I started working on this story.
We had a discussion about this,
whether Baksa was actually capable of doing such a thing.
He was full of hot air.
We believed that he was someone
who'd boast about things that he didn't have the guts to do.
We both believed that he wouldn't really do anything.
By making the media focus on the issue,
we tried to make the investigative bodies participate in the investigation.
We believed that might help in speeding up the investigation.
We wanted to help them catch the perpetrators
by raising public awareness against the Nth Rooms.
So we decided to air the show.
A CALL FOR AWARENESS OF TELEGRAM SEX CRIMES
DIGITAL SEX CRIMES RAMPANT
The show aired on the 17th,
and I think the video appeared the following weekend.
Someone was wearing a plastic bag over the head…
with the neck hanging from a doorknob.
It was a video of Baksa's victim
saying that she would kill herself at the SBS building on a certain date.
This video began circulating in Baksa's
and other Telegram chat rooms.
OJ: I AM BAKSA'S SLAVE.
I WILL KILL MYSELF ON THE ROOFTOP OF THE SBS BUILDING IN A FEW DAYS
BECAUSE BAKSA'S STORY WENT ON THE AIR
BAKSA'S SLAVE
It felt like
he wanted to show off that he had the power to make someone commit suicide.
BAKSA: IF THE JTBC SHOW AIRS, THERE WILL BE ANOTHER VICTIM
NAMED "THE SPOTLIGHT VICTIM"
Two days before the show,
he blackmailed us
saying he'd make a "Spotlight victim" if we aired the show.
SPOTLIGHT VICTIM KIM U-RI
BAKSA: I PLAN TO POST THE VIDEO ALONG WITH HER NAME, OCCUPATION, AND ADDRESS
OFFICE WORKER 379-127 GAAN-GU, SEOUL
We actually got a call from Team Flame then.
We were also working closely with Team Flame then.
Team Flame called
and asked me if I could reconsider airing the show.
It was so stressful. I knew there would definitely be a victim.
He even stated the victim's occupation, name,
and the specific location where the crime would occur.
And he said he'd reveal a video of her with certain body parts covered,
two days before the show was supposed to air.
JTBC, SPOTLIGHT
Baksa, the person who reigns as king in the Telegram chat rooms.
To get to me, you'll have to turn the whole country inside out.
That's why I'm not scared.
BAKSA: HERE'S THE NEW GIRL, SINCE YOU AIRED THE SHOW DESPITE THE WARNING
SPOTLIGHT VICTIM KIM U-RI
OFFICE WORKER 379-127 GAAN-GU, SEOUL
Personally, I didn't think
he'd actually upload that video.
I apologized to the victim.
I told her I really didn't expect that he'd actually release the video like that.
But the victim told me
that I shouldn't think that way.
She said that was exactly what Baksa wanted.
She also said the video was bound to be released anyway
and that he was trying to use it
to get our company involved.
Was it my fault?
I didn't know what to say.
I made her a victim.
I felt so guilty about what happened to her.
SEOUL METROPOLITAN POLICE
I heard that Baksa announced that he'd make one of his victims
commit suicide at the SBS building.
OJ: I AM BAKSA'S SLAVE.
I WILL KILL MYSELF ON THE ROOFTOP OF THE SBS BUILDING IN A FEW DAYS
BECAUSE BAKSA'S STORY WENT ON THE AIR
SBS BAKSA'S SLAVE
We only had the video at first.
Her torso was the only thing we could see, so we didn't have enough clues.
We had notified the precinct in charge of the area where the SBS building is
just in case something happens.
And we tried to find the victim.
She seemed really young in the video.
In order to identify the victim,
we analyzed all the photos Baksa had posted previously.
We looked for the smallest clues that would help us find the victim.
We went through the backed-up data obtained from Baksa's chat rooms.
SBS BAKSA'S SLAVE
We discovered that one of the victim's videos and photos were similar
to the girl in the video who was saying she'd commit suicide.
Eventually, we found a video showing her face.
In the video revealing the victim's face,
there were books behind her.
We found tiny letters that looked like her name.
That's how we found out her name and her school.
NURI MIDDLE SCHOOL, KIM EUN-JEONG
After a lot of searching, we finally managed to identify the victim.
NURI MIDDLE SCHOOL
SEARCH RESULTS:
SHOW ALL
I think it was the day before Lunar New Year's.
The highways have been packed with traffic
due to the large number of people visiting their families for the holiday season.
Since it was the holidays, there was so much traffic.
I think we arrived there at 11 p.m. or midnight.
We decided to keep watch until the morning
just in case the victim tried to do something unpredictable.
We were waiting to see
if she'd come out looking like she was going somewhere far.
And we were looking at her window on the floor where she lived
to see if we could detect some kind of action.
We parked our car nearby so we could keep an eye on her
and took turns keeping watch in pairs until the morning.
We didn't approach her right away in the morning.
We stayed outside to see who would come out.
We waited a couple of hours, but nothing happened.
So we all went upstairs
and met with the victim and her parents.
BAKSA'S SLAVE
When we entered her room,
we saw the string that was used in the photo hanging from the doorknob.
We also found notes that she had been forced to write.
Things like "Go, Baksa's chat room."
All those notes were just lying around.
Baksa had been threatening to harm her
so she was very frightened at the time.
She couldn't refuse to do as he said.
Since I also have two children of my own, I explained the situation to her parents.
I told them that Baksa was blackmailing their daughter
and told them not to worry about retaliation.
We assured them that we'd take care of it.
I knew we had to catch him no matter what.
Everyone in my unit, including myself,
was determined to catch him.
Baksa ran three secret chat rooms that had membership fees.
The Hard Room cost 250 thousand won to join,
The High-rolling Sponsors Room cost 500 thousand won to join…
JTBC, SPOTLIGHT
…and the most exclusive room that costs a million won to join.
It is estimated that Baksa had earned over 100 million won from those 3 rooms.
I monitored Baksa's Telegram chat room while having dinner and watching our show.
NONO: IT'S ON!
SANGSANG: THIS IS GONNA BE FUN
NONO: TALKING BULLSHIT FROM THE START SEOKSA: SHE'S GODGOD'S SLAVE, NOT BAKSA'S
HASO: ISN'T SHE IN THE 5TH ROOM? BAKSA: HOW WOULD I KNOW?
HOHOHONG: YOU HAVE TOO MANY SLAVES, BAKSA
The members were all talking about the show in the chat room.
They tried to guess who the victims were.
"That's so-and-so."
"Actually, she's so-and-so."
"Is that her?"
They were mocking us.
"Hey, they're calling me a hikikomori."
"This is hilarious."
"The Korean police said they'd catch me."
"We'll see about that."
The point at issue started to change
when we mentioned Bestcoin.
That seemed to have unnerved him.
When we mentioned Bestcoin,
he seemed perplexed and suddenly went quiet.
Following a small lead,
we found the cryptocurrency exchange used by Baksa.
-Have you seen this recently? -Yes.
The number of those being sent to Baksa was estimated at around 100.
CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGE PLATFORM
USED BY BAKSA TO SELL SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE VIDEOS
He started complaining that we were ruining his business.
The members started panicking too, asking if they were going to get caught.
I think there were about a thousand people in the chat room that day.
BAKSA: WHAT?
HANA: THEY FOUND BESTCOIN NONO: NO WAY
EVERYONE WHO'S SENT MONEY IS SCREWED CHAECHISEU: THEY WILL FIND THE DEPOSITORS
HORIRI: WHAT DO WE DO NOW, BAKSA?
After that, he started to explain the situation.
BAKSA: I UNDERSTAND MANY OF YOU ARE WORRIED AFTER WATCHING THE SHOW
MANY OF MY CUSTOMERS HAVE ASKED ME IF THEY WOULD BE OKAY
He told them that those who paid to join the most expensive rooms were safe.
I HAVE PROVED MYSELF TIME AND TIME AGAIN I HAVE OVERCOME A LOT
YOU CAN TRUST ME AND JOIN THE ROOMS
Baksa continued to send messages about how he was still totally safe.
Then he opened different accounts for different kinds of cryptocurrency.
I think he tried to change his modus operandi a bit.
BAKSA: THIS IS MY NEW ACCOUNT
MONERO FOR INQUIRIES, BAKSAYA
I'VE SET UP A NEW ACCOUNT BITCOIN
YOU CAN PAY ME HERE NOW ETHEREUM
We thought following the money would help us obtain a clear lead
because there had to be a monetary transaction
for this crime to be completed.
At first, we didn't put much thought into it.
But since his earnings from his crimes were hidden there,
we thought the information regarding his accounts could be useful.
So we sent all the screenshots to the police.
BAKSA: I'VE SET UP A NEW ACCOUNT BITCOIN
YOU CAN PAY ME HERE NOW ETHEREUM
Baksa had to get his hands on the money.
So when people sent cryptocurrency payments through a platform,
he had to get that money somehow, by cashing it out or using other methods.
So we focused on finding out
how the payments were being cashed out and who was getting the money in the end.
We discovered Baksa actually tried to cash out all the payments
that had been sent to his Monero wallet.
People at Bestcoin told us
he wanted to cash out about five million won.
He told them via Telegram that he'd send a 9th grader to pick up the cash,
and a 9th grader actually came and picked up the five million won.
BAKSA: GO TO THE EXCHANGE AND CASH OUT THE COINS THAT WERE TRANSFERRED
BDBD: YES, SIR
Baksa seemed to have figured out a way to monetize the Nth Rooms
using the experiences he had with his previous illicit activities.
He somehow knew that having the payments sent to him
through messenger apps or directly to his bank account,
or even fake accounts and burner phones was risky.
So he only accepted cryptocurrency payments
and when he wanted to cash them out,
he got people to pick up the cash and used the "throwing" method.
BAKSA: THROW THEM AT OUR USUAL SPOT
A Chinese man who dealt drugs
by "throwing" the drugs at specific locations
for his clients to pick up has been arrested.
A man who has sneaked into an alleyway in the dark of night checks his cell phone
then leaves a suspicious parcel below the AC unit and leaves.
This is a new method of dealing drugs called "throwing."
He didn't use the common methods that we had seen in the past,
such as receiving gift certificates in exchange for such videos.
The way he received payments
and got people to "throw" cash in certain places
was very similar to what we had seen in phone scams.
I'd say it was almost identical.
An old man returns home with a paper bag full of money.
He was blackmailed to withdraw cash from his bank account
and leave the money at his front door
because his personal information had been compromised.
He had become a victim of a phone scam.
The 11 million won he had left at his door quickly disappeared.
It made us think
that he could be involved in phone scams as well.
That could be very much possible.
We had a list of Baksa's IDs and accounts that he was using on Telegram.
THE ONE AND ONLY STAR BAKSA
CONTACT VIA TELEGRAM
IF YOU NEED MONEY, CONTACT ME
LOOKING FOR ONLINE SHOPPING MALL MODELS CONTACT: TELEGRAM ID K8GOOSE
COPY USERNAME
Some IDs that Baksa used on Telegram
could be identical to those that were used in phone scams.
TELEGRAM ID, CHDRL098 SOLD PERSONAL INFO TO USE IN PHONE SCAMS
TELEGRAM ID, K8GOOSE SIMILAR TO PHONE SCAMS
When Baksa introduced himself in his Telegram chat rooms
he'd say that he ran a private investigation agency.
PRIVATE INVESTIGATION AGENCY MR. BAK
So we looked up the agencies that might be linked to those IDs.
It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
We solely focused on his Telegram IDs.
Using the list of IDs we had,
we looked for past cases that Baksa's IDs were involved with.
And during our search…
LIM ***-*** (TELEGRAM ID, MON21134)
DESPITE KNOWING CHOI ***'S CRIMES JEONG ***-***'S TELEGRAM ID, HOTHOT09 WAS
KIM ***-*** AND LEE ***-*** UNDER THE TELEGRAM ID, K8GOOSE
SUSPECT INTERROGATION REPORT DATE: MARCH 2019
ACCUSED: KIM, LEE CHARGE: NARCOTICS FRAUD USING TELEGRAM
SUSPECT INTERROGATION REPORT
We found several narcotics and firearms fraud cases from the past.
The couriers in those cases were Kim and Lee.
INVOLVED IN NARCOTICS AND FIREARMS FRAUD
HANDLED ILLEGAL FUNDS FROM CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES
CHARGED WITH FRAUD UNRELATED TO THE BAKSA CASE
We discovered that the Telegram ID Kim and Lee both mentioned…
CASE SUMMARY
KIM AND LEE WERE CONTACTED ONLINE AND GIVEN ORDERS BY MR. BAK
WHO USED THE TELEGRAM ID, K8GOOSE, AND RAN A PRIVATE INVESTIGATION AGENCY
…was the same as the ID…
GO TAKE A NUDE SELFIE IN THE BATHROOM NOW
…that Baksa was using in this case.
Both Lee and Kim were under arrest with other charges at the time.
They were convicted with about four to five charges.
CASE SUMMARY
KIM AND LEE WERE CONTACTED ONLINE AND GIVEN ORDERS BY MR. BAK
WHO USED THE TELEGRAM ID, K8GOOSE
You'd usually see a single count on the case reports, but they were convicted
under drug trafficking charges, firearms trafficking charges,
and fraud charges, all separately.
And they both said that they were working for…
LEFT THE MONEY FROM THE VICTIMS BY A FIRE HYDRANT AS PER MR. BAK'S ORDER
THEY DO NOT KNOW WHO MR. BAK IS AND WERE GIVEN ORDERS VIA TELEGRAM
…an agency run by someone named Mr. Bak.
PRIVATE INVESTIGATION AGENCY MR. BAK
There were
about 70 to 80 chat rooms that Baksa had created.
When we looked through all the chat rooms,
he often mentioned that he ran a private investigation agency.
He could have been lying, but it could have been true as well.
So we suspected that Kim and Lee could be close to him
or that maybe one of them was Baksa himself.
We specified dozens of suspects who we thought could be Baksa.
We kept narrowing down the list by the process of elimination.
Eventually, we were left with one suspect.
BAKSA: BUDDA, DID YOU PICK UP THE CASH?
BUDDA: YES
BAKSA: THROW THEM AT OUR USUAL SPOT
BAKSA ROOM
BAKSA'S RIGHT-HAND MAN
PRODUCED AND DISTRIBUTED SEXUAL EXPLOITATION VIDEOS
HANDLED ILLICIT FUNDS FOR BAKSA
One day, Baksa told Budda to open a cryptocurrency account,
withdraw money from it and throw it somewhere for him.
Budda was already in police custody for some other case.
SUSPECT INTERROGATION REPORT
DATE: NOVEMBER 2019 SUSPECT: KANG (TELEGRAM ID 'BUDDA')
CHARGE: STALKING A MINOR
STATEMENT
Q: YOU'VE BEEN ARRESTED FOR STALKING A HIGH SCHOOL GIRL
WAS THIS CONNECTED TO THE BAKSA ROOM CASE?
A: NO, IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE BAKSA ROOM CASE
While admitting to the crime he committed,
he stated that he was just Baksa's errand boy.
We asked him, "What kinds of errands?"
Under Baksa's orders, Budda created cryptocurrency accounts,
cashed the payment that Baksa received into his own bank account
and delivered the money to Baksa.
He claimed he was blackmailed by Baksa to throw money somewhere for him.
It was the same for Lee and Kim.
They collected the money from their narcotics and firearms frauds
and left them somewhere for Baksa to retrieve.
There were several locations.
We were able to narrow down the locations
that Baksa had used for the delivery of his funds.
Lee, Kim, and Budda
had all previously delivered money to one of those locations in the past.
SUWON
A fire hydrant in an apartment building.
FIRE HYDRANT
It was a fire hydrant in an apartment building.
We confirmed that cash had been left inside.
We had to find the final destination.
Simply put,
the person who takes the money in the end would most likely be Baksa.
So we kept tracking the money.
Our whole team did stakeouts for about a month.
We believed that someone in the apartment
had been collecting money from the fire hydrant.
Based on the information we obtained
about the dates and times of the drop-offs and the specific fire hydrants…
We looked through months' worth of CCTV footage
to see who took the elevator and who walked up and down the stairs.
Sometimes, they'd get off on that very floor.
But there were times when they got off on a different floor
and used the stairs to get to the fire hydrant.
In the process of analyzing the footage…
we spotted a suspicious resident and started tailing her.
She looked young
but she'd wire a large amount of money using an ATM.
She would usually act normally, hanging out with her friends and stuff.
But on certain days,
we saw that she took the subway to go somewhere far
to meet someone.
So we investigated all her routes,
kept a record of when they met, when they parted ways,
and what was happening in the chat rooms after the meetings.
We analyzed everything.
If Baksa was seen in the chat rooms while they were meeting,
then it probably wasn't Baksa.
But he was barely seen in the chat rooms.
NONO: WHERE'S BAKSA? SANGSANG: WHERE DID MR. BAK GO?
So we tracked that man again.
He went to another location after meeting that girl.
And he met another man at a new location.
According to the claim that Baksa made in the chat room,
he was living abroad
and apparently had his men collect and wire his money to him.
If that were true,
that man would have passed on the money to another man in a different location.
But it was the other way around.
He collected money from the other man.
The money from the fire hydrant…
and the money from the other man.
We saw that this man was collecting all the money.
So, with this…
we concluded that it had to be him.
BAKSA ROOM
REPUBLIC OF KOREA
There were around 40 of us working on the case that day.
One group was tailing him.
In the subway station…
And others were on a stakeout along the routes
from the subway and the bus station to his home.
And another group was on a stakeout near his home.
ACTUAL CCTV FOOTAGE
If we knocked on his door and barged in when he was home,
he'd obviously try to get rid of all the evidence.
We had to arrest him while he was still logged in on Telegram
to obtain solid evidence.
The thing about Telegram is that everything gets deleted
when you log out.
So we waited for the right time.
From around 6 or 7 a.m.
I think we were on a stakeout for about eight to nine hours.
There was no movement for hours.
Then, finally, around 4:30 to 5 p.m…
he left the house to go for a bike ride.
It seemed like his father was teaching him how to ride a bike.
Then they went back home.
We were continuously monitoring his Telegram chat rooms as well.
We were waiting on the roof of his house.
ACTUAL CCTV FOOTAGE
SEOUL JONGNO POLICE STATION
I personally think that it was premeditated.
For the people's right to know and to prevent crimes…
Do you have anything to say to the victims?
Thank you for putting an end to the life of a demon that I could not stop.
Do you admit to the charge of distributing pornography?
Don't you feel guilty?
Do you admit to the charges?
Mr. Bak!
It's me, Mr. Choi! Why did you lie to us?
Don't you feel guilty?
Don't you want to apologize to your victims?
CHOI KWANG-IL, PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Mr. Bak!
Repent!
The day after Cho Ju-bin's interview, a story about him was on the front page.
When I saw his face on the front page,
I stomped on it.
That's how much I despised him.
Although Baksa was caught,
the victims never got a word of apology out of him.
Baksa being arrested wasn't the end of it all.
If Baksa is labeled as "a demon,"
millions of others who had participated in those chat rooms
would seem less evil by comparison.
By referring to himself as "a demon,"
I got the sense that he was trying to put himself on a pedestal.
Almost as if he was boasting that his deeds were unparalleled.
I was disgusted by the fact that he called himself that.
Cho Ju-bin and other accomplices of the Baksa Rooms are being arrested.
However, the whereabouts of Godgod,
the initial creator of the Nth Rooms is still a mystery.
BAKSA ROOM
NTH ROOMS
LAST ONLINE 11 MONTHS AGO
CURRENTLY ONLINE
I heard that Godgod wanted to meet me
after the show aired on Y-Story.
He said this in one of the chat rooms.
GODGOD IS TYPING
GODGOD: TELL JEONG JAE-WON AT Y-STORY TO CONTACT ME IF YOU SEE HIM LOL
ADFS: GODGOD, YOU'RE BACK
ADFDF: ARE YOU REALLY GODGOD?
If something on the show provoked him,
there was only one thing I could think of.
The part where Baksa mentioned Godgod.
"Godgod produces low-quality content."
I think that's what provoked him.
This was what got him
riled up.
THIS IS SBS Y-STORY'S PROGRAM DIRECTOR JEONG JAE-WON
HELLO, MR. JEONG
RED: HELLO, MR. JEONG
WE'RE A TEAM OF HACKERS TRYING TO TRACK DOWN GODGOD
I'll just call them "Red Team."
They're a team of hackers.
They said they were capable of tracking him down
and were already working on it.
They said they had already collected a large amount of data
and had the means to obtain his personal information and address.
They were legitimate.
RED TEAM AN ANONYMOUS HACKER GROUP
TRACED GODGOD AND HANDED HIS INFO OVER TO PROGRAM DIRECTOR JEONG JAE-WON
The Red Team contacted Godgod pretending to be one of his followers
and told him…
SEND DIRECT MESSAGE
THE PROGRAM DIRECTOR IS COLLECTING TIP-OFFS ABOUT YOU THROUGH THIS LINK
SBS IS COLLECTING INFORMATION ABOUT NTH ROOMS
And Godgod clicked on that link.
We finally got a lead on him.
There were scripts embedded on the page.
KANG IN-WOOK, WHITE HACKER RAON WHITEHAT
In the digital world,
you inevitably end up leaving traces once you're connected to a network.
Criminals cannot hide forever because of that reason.
I reviewed the data from the Red Team.
There were hidden codes that could extract information on Godgod.
So we could say that he fell for the exact same trick
that he had used on his victims.
This is Godgod's IP address, and we can see more details.
We were able to see the cell phone model that he was using.
If you look up the IP address, you can see the location.
It was Anseong.
It was a building in Anseong, Gyeonggi-do.
He was using a public Wi-Fi network on his Samsung Galaxy Note 5
when he clicked on the link.
We were able to obtain this information through Red Team.
The police had a warrant issued based on the reported IP address.
Then the Internet service provider informed the police that the IP address
belonged to a wireless router used by a company in Anseong.
GYEONGBUK PROVINCIAL POLICE
We had a list of IP addresses associated with him.
In order to track the multiple IP addresses that Godgod had been using,
we drew circles around the locations of the IP addresses.
Then we listed the suspects living in the area
where the circles overlapped.
We were able to specify a house that seemed to be Godgod's residence.
He usually committed the crimes at his apartment
or his parent's place.
He got the tools he needed from his father's shop.
His father ran a junk shop.
There were a lot of discarded phones there,
so he kept switching phones.
He'd either use a discarded phone or instead of using his personal router,
he'd use someone else's router.
He used every Wi-Fi network around him that didn't require a password.
It was hard to catch him because he was using IP addresses
assigned to other people's routers.
CONNECTING
And since he was using Wi-Fi extenders to connect to them from afar,
the police couldn't get his exact location.
He even got rid of the routers periodically.
We confirmed that he destroyed all the evidence
when the case became known to the public between January and March.
Godgod initially saved the videos of his victims on his SD cards,
which he disposed of periodically.
Before disposing of them, he uploaded the videos to a cloud storage named Mega
and shared the links to the Telegram chat rooms.
GODGOD: IT'S UPLOADED TO MEGA
He used a disposable email address to create an account for the cloud server,
so he couldn't remember the password himself .
He only used the account to distribute the videos.
There was a video that Godgod had recorded,
which showed his phone's home screen.
TELEGRAM
4TH ROOM, GODGOD LIVE SLAVE EVENT
WE HAVE A NEW SLAVE LOOK FORWARD TO IT
We could see the applications installed on his phone.
Many of them weren't commonly used apps.
Apps like Mobizen, TextNow, a lesbian dating app, and so on.
When we visited the junk shop, we saw a lot of old phones.
There was a huge pile of them.
We believed there was a high probability that those were used in his crimes,
so we seized dozens of phones from the junk shop.
We narrowed them down to a few that seemed to have been used by him
and performed a digital forensic analysis.
GODGOD'S PHONE, SUSPECT'S PHONE
Mobizen, a lesbian dating app,
three different Twitter accounts, and TextNow.
Similar applications were installed on both phones.
So we concluded that the suspect was Godgod.
We showed him the phones that we seized from the junk shop
and asked him if they belonged to him.
He hesitated a bit
but eventually admitted that he is Godgod.
The Telegram chat rooms that shared sexually exploitative videos…
The Nth Rooms…
The initial creator…
-Godgod… -Godgod
has been arrested.
A man is being escorted out by the police.
He has a round face and is wearing glasses.
Godgod's expression seems indifferent and calm.
This is the first time Moon Hyung-wook,
Godgod's face, is being revealed to the public.
Even as he is apologizing,
he doesn't seem to be feeling an ounce of regret.
I want to tell the victims and their families that I'm sorry.
What was the purpose of those crimes?
I think I had corrupt sexual ethics.
What's your relationship with Cho Ju-bin?
I do not know him.
-Say something to the victims. -That's enough.
-Please stop now. -I'm sorry.
Step down.
Over here!
Excuse me.
Hey, over here!
CHOI KWANG-IL, PROGRAM DIRECTOR JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT
She was a young kid.
When I first got the phone call,
something felt off.
You know, the sounds that we hear in our everyday lives…
Something that young kids would say like, "Mom, I'm talking on the phone."
I could also tell that the TV was on,
and it sounded like her mother was cooking in the kitchen.
So I thought, "This isn't a phone scam."
Then she said…
"I want to report something about the Nth Rooms."
She sounded very young.
CHANG EUN-JO, BROADCASTING WRITER JTBC'S SPOTLIGHT
She said, "Hello?"
When I answered the call, I could hear her saying,
"No, Mom! I have to do something. I'll be right back."
Then it sounded like she was stepping out of the house.
It was fine up until that point.
She said, "I was bored, so I started chatting with random people online."
"And this person said he'd give me money If I sent him some photos."
Then what followed happened in a blink of an eye.
She said, "My family had to move because of me,
so I transferred schools."
But then, many people saw the video of her
and sent it to her asking if it was her.
I told her everything was going to be okay.
She said her parents were worried
that she might try to take her own life.
Then…
she talked about the video she was forced to make,
and I could tell who she was.
And then,
she described other things she had done.
As soon as I heard it,
I knew what she was talking about.
I knew exactly
what she was talking about because I had seen the videos of her.
But I was telling her it was going to be okay.
That nobody knows.
"All I did was click on the link. I only chatted with them."
"I only watched the videos and did nothing else."
Digital sex crimes become more serious
when the media produced becomes shared between multiple people.
All the small acts that people don't take seriously could end up
inflicting tremendous harm on the victims when it accumulates.
You can easily destroy the victims' lives
and prevent them from continuing with their normal lives.
It only takes one click.
"I didn't rape or sexually assault anyone."
"Everyone watches videos on YouTube and other streaming sites."
"All I did was watch some sensational content."
"Why should I be punished for it?"
But from the victim's point of view, those actions inflict harm on them.
There's no doubt about it.
The victims were exposed to a serious crime
that they'll be traumatized for the rest of their lives.
What's even worse is that it's not just one person who's involved.
Multiple people were involved in the Nth Rooms case.
This crime would not have occurred if there was no demand for it.
Cho Ju-bin would've never been able to commit all those crimes
had there not been a demand for such content.
The case was made public
after the victims had endured the abuse and exploitation for a long time.
It was only after they decided to expose the abuse they had been suffering
that the investigation could begin.
Some of the victims decided to come forward
because they didn't want others to experience what they had suffered.
When I asked the victims what motivated them to report the crimes
or what made them muster up the courage to do it,
they said they wanted Baksa to get caught.
And some said they wished that Telegram would disappear
so there wouldn't be any more victims.
They were really brave.
Without their courage, we wouldn't have been able to air the program,
and Team Flame and The Hankyoreh wouldn't have been able to cover it.
One of the victims told us…
OH YEON-SEO, JOURNALIST THE HANKYOREH
…that there was a comment on one of the articles that said,
"Please tell me what I can do to support these brave women."
There were so many articles about Baksa at the time,
and she said that one comment
gave her so much strength.
She said it made her realize that there were people rooting for her.
That comment meant more to her than any other article.
Would you still cover this story if you could go back in time?
No, I wouldn't want to do it.
I really wouldn't.
I mean it.
It was like hell for me.
It was hell because of the responsibility and ethics involved.
I'd have to do it if I knew about it.
I probably would have been happier had I not covered the story.
l can answer this without any hesitation.
I would still write that article for sure.
These days, I keep finding myself thinking,
"Why didn't I dig into that in November?"
"Why didn't I dig deeper?"
"Why didn't I take a screenshot of that?"
I think I'd do a better job if I could go back in time.
I often think that maybe
I could've helped the police catch the perpetrators sooner.
If I could go back in time, I'd start working on it in February.
I'd start in February…
DAN TEAM FLAME
…so that I can stop them sooner.
Hypothetically speaking…
I mean, if only that were possible,
I'd go back to the moment when Godgod and Cho Ju-bin were born
and help them grow into better people.
Had I known about it sooner, I would've investigated more thoroughly.
BUL, OUTREACHER TEAM FLAME
To be honest, I have a lot of regrets about that.
The Nth Rooms were like the gates of hell.
It had always existed but we had been ignoring it all this time.
But since that gate is now open, society at large has to face this issue.
Things are changing for the better…
but I don't think we've changed enough.
THE SUPREME COURT SENTENCED BAKSA, CHO JU-BIN
TO 42 YEARS IN PRISON IN OCTOBER 2021
HE COERCED 25 VICTIMS INTO FILMING SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE CONTENT
BETWEEN 2019 TO 2020
THE SUPREME COURT SENTENCED GODGOD, MOON HYEONG-WOOK,
TO 34 YEARS IN PRISON IN NOVEMBER 2021
HE COERCED APPROXIMATELY 20 VICTIMS INTO FILMING SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE CONTENT
BETWEEN 2017 TO 2020
A TOTAL OF 3,757 PEOPLE LINKED TO THE NTH ROOM CRIMES HAVE BEEN ARRESTED
AND 245 OF THEM HAVE BEEN IMPRISONED (AS OF DECEMBER 2020)
CASES SIMILAR TO THE NTH ROOMS ARE STILL GLOBALLY RAMPANT
THE VIDEOS CREATED IN THE NTH ROOMS ARE STILL BEING SOLD WORLDWIDE
VIA FOREIGN MESSAGING PLATFORMS AND THE DARK WEB
IF YOU OR AN ACQUAINTANCE HAVE EXPERIENCED SEXUAL ASSAULT
INFORMATION AND SUPPORT CAN BE FOUND ON WWW.WANNATALKABOUTIT.COM
It's not the victim's fault at all.
It's systematically rigged so that
anyone would fall victim to such acts when they're put in the same situation.
Instead of asking, "Why did you do that? Why did you put yourself in such danger?"
We should realize that it's just as likely to happen to any one of us.
There are many cases where people become victims
just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
How did the victims come to be blackmailed?
The victims know very well
that they will be the ones to be blamed when such videos are distributed.
They become susceptible to blackmail because of such fears.
So, the way we view the victims is also what reinforces such violence.
The videos wouldn't be made and distributed if there were no viewers.
If there wasn't anyone who made or distributed such videos,
then no one would watch them.
The act of consumption and production are closely related to one another.
Either consumption or production must be removed to prevent the other.
That is why we consider digital sex crime
to be collaborative criminal acts that occur within a group.
It could happen to me. It can definitely happen to you, too.
We need to work together so that
cases like the Nth Rooms and the Baksa rooms
don't repeat themselves.
Subtitle translation by: Liya Choi