Hundreds of Hotel Guests Secretly Filmed

TV channel zapping

Authorities in South Korea say that hundreds of hotel guests may have fallen victim to four men who are now charged with placing hidden cameras in rooms in order to use the live-feeds and recorded footage as part of a members-only voyeuristic website. The tiny cameras were reportedly concealed in televisions, wall sockets and bathroom hairdryer holders.

Recent hotel guests in South Korea learned some disturbing news this week that they may have starred in voyeuristic pornography without ever being aware they were on camera. Police say more than 1,600 overnight guests may have fallen victim to the scheme in which hidden cameras were concealed in wall sockets, bathroom hairdryer holders and in-room electronic devices, including televisions and cable boxes. The compromising footage was then uploaded to a members-only pay-per-view voyeurism website.

According to BBC News, four men were arrested for their roles in the large-scale criminal operation. The perpetrators are accused of installing the tiny 1mm lens cameras in more than 30 hotel rooms in at least ten cities across South Korea. The website created in November to share the covertly captured videos had nearly 100 paid subscribers. The site boasted 803 hotel room videos which were offered as 30 second free previews for anyone who happened to be on the site. The hidden camera videos could also be watched in their entirety for a fee.

“The police agency strictly deals with criminals who post and share illegal videos as they severely harm human dignity,” a spokesman for the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency told the Korea Herald in the wake of the scandal.

BBC reports that spy camera porn in South Korea has become something of an epidemic in recent years. In 2017, more than 500 suspects were arrested on charges related to hidden camera related crimes. The issue has become so prevalent that women have been urged to check public restrooms for peepholes and spy cams prior to using the facilities.  The capital city of Seoul announced in September it would perform a daily sweep of public restrooms to look for such devices every day.

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