Recommendation 06
Starting with 08

01 I didn't even know that the gates of hell were opening before me. 17
02 How did I end up in Cheonan? 23
03 Why I Got a Lease When I Had Nothing 26
04 Finding a home free of cockroaches, rust, and smoke odors 29
05 Meet Richens 1004 and 34
06 My hometown is Daechi-dong's red brick villa village 44
07 The Happiness of Living in a Rented House 48
08 Is this what a company is like? 51
09 Is the outside world hell? The company itself is already hell.
10 What was my original dream? 62
11 My Savior Who Came to Save My Life, GYC 67
12 Real Estate Boss, Why Are You Doing This to Me? 70
13 Anyway, resignation 76
14 I visited a psychiatrist for the first time in my life. 79
15 Auction is auction, education is education 84
16 In Hungary, the tenant was also 91
Becoming a debtor who has to pay back 3 million won every month 95
18 Slowly Falling Apart in Hungary 101
19 It is written as a filial piety trip, but it is read as a modern-day Goryeojang. 107
20 Richens 1004, Hell's Gate Rediscovered 111
21 No matter how good the food is, don't eat what guests leave behind. 117
22 houses were sold at auction 121
23 I wish my landlord would commit suicide 127
24 I struck the fish head, thinking of the landlord's face. 132
25 Mr. Bidder, Could You Please Be Forgiving Just This Once? 136
Bank Debt: More Dangerous Than Shedding 142
27 lawsuits and MBC interview 146
28 Don't die, us 151
29 Life doesn't end with debt 155
30 Even Shin Ramyun is a luxury these days. 159
31 Mom, please send me some money. 163
32 The successful bidder became the new homeowner. 166
33 Countries that call victims hostile forces 172
34 Emergency support policies were announced 177
35 Is this what paperwork hell is like? 181
36 Emergency livelihood support funds and twenty packs of Shin Ramyun 185
37 countries, giant time bombs 191
38 I am Jungle Fish 194 of South Korea
39 Special laws were created, but 198
40 5.8 Million Won Bitter Lesson 202
41 Defective Products in Daechi-dong 207
42 Why Are We So Easily Scammed? 210
43 Misfortunes come endlessly like a tidal wave. 214
44 I can understand people who isolate themselves. 221
45 You can't give up on your dreams just because you've been scammed. 225
46 Rereading "The Old Man and the Sea" as an Adult 231
47 Burn to death or drown in the sea 234
48 I will take an ocean-going merchant ship. 239
243 at the 49 Ship's Cook Training Center
50 Attended the auction scene 247
51 Another word for foolishness is earnestness. 252

In conclusion 256

July 5, 2021 - October 2, 2023
City Hall, Court, Police Station, HUG, Housing Welfare Foundation
A victim of a rental fraud writes a story of 820 days, over two years of hard work.

Despite the government's successive announcements of countermeasures and the implementation of special laws, rental fraud continues to spread nationwide.
Four victims have already taken their own lives in the first half of this year alone, but the recent resurgence of rental fraud in Suwon has once again heightened public anxiety.
And the biggest victims of this crime, like other victims of economic crimes, were the young, wealthy 2030 generation, including those just starting out in society, newlyweds, and college students.


The jeonse system, which exists only in Korea, has been playing a significant role as a kind of 'private finance' for the past 50 years.
Landlords could save money by depositing their jeonse deposit in the bank or investing it, and tenants could save money to buy their own home while living there for a certain period of time.
In the so-called 'housing ladder' that goes from rent to monthly rent, to jeonse and finally to owning one's own home, the jeonse system was the last stepping stone to help people climb to the most stable level of home ownership.

But why is the jeonse (long-term deposit) system, which has long been a key pillar of the South Korean real estate market, so flawed? What did the government do while thousands of victims were defrauded of hundreds of billions of won? Why do the same damages recur year after year? Above all, why are so few perpetrators properly punished? Why was there no oversight while one person bought hundreds of homes? And why are so many real estate agents with fraud records or no licenses? "Jeonse Hell: The Jeonse Fraud Diary of a 1991-born Young Man" is a book about what an ordinary young man, who received his first jeonse (long-term deposit) in July 2020, saw, heard, and experienced over two years of desperately trying to recoup some of the damage he suffered after losing his entire jeonse deposit overnight.
First, it vividly portrays the reality and structure that anyone can be helpless if they fall for a scheme designed by professional scammers, no matter how carefully they search for a house based on the advice of an older relative who is a real estate agent, from the victim's perspective.
In this process, you can hear the heartbreaking story of a young man whose life plans were disrupted, his relationships were strained, his daily life fell apart, and he was ultimately forced to put his dreams on hold.
Another unique benefit of this book is that it allows readers to indirectly experience the frustration and helplessness that the kind but passive responses of relevant government ministries and administrative agencies instill in ordinary people.
Above all, this book is a record of a young man's struggle to save himself despite all these circumstances and his resolve not to limit his identity to that of a victim of a real estate fraud.


A diary of a rental fraud suffered by a young man born in 1991

July 2020, preliminary contract and move-in for Richens Villa #1004, Dujeong-dong, Cheonan-si / Application for Youth Support Loan
Confirmation of auction notice for July 2021 / Acceptance of overseas employment program / Resignation
Accepted and departed for a Hungarian company in December 2021
The two-year mortgage loan matures in July 2022 / I will leave the Hungarian company in December.
Entering Korea in February 2023 / First death of a rental fraud victim in Michuhol-gu, Incheon
Part-time job starting in March 2023
All units of Richens Villa sold in April 2023/ Two victims of rental fraud in Michuhol-gu, Incheon die/
Government's declaration of suspension of auctions/implementation of temporary relief measures
In May 2023, a criminal complaint was filed against the building owner and real estate agent of Richens Villa. An interview was conducted with Daejeon MBC.
Signing a contract with the new landlord
The government's official relief policy for victims of rental fraud will be implemented in June 2023, and the Richens Villa auction will end.
Moved to Yongin's main house/address change in September 2023

Real estate agent, why are you doing this to me?

The author returns home excitedly after an interview for an overseas employment program hosted by Shinhan Financial Group and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. He checks the auction notice posted on each front door.
If everything had gone according to plan, I would have followed the steps of resignation -> program completion -> successful overseas employment -> departure, but my life got completely tangled up as I had to deal with the issue of my rental house being auctioned off.
After calling the landlord countless times and waiting endlessly for the real estate agent's indifferent response to just wait, I had a mental breakdown and took antidepressants for the first time in my life.


After endlessly berating myself for not being able to endure the cockroach-infested, rust-filled company dormitory any longer and instead renting a house, I found out that several households had already been scammed by real estate agents, that the building owner had only 1,000 won left in his bank account, and that his husband was in prison on another loan fraud charge.
After confirming that the 100 million won deduction certificate that I had trusted as a talisman was actually nothing more than a useless piece of paper, I began to exploit loopholes in the jeonse system.
The more I investigate, the more I see how flawed this system is, and I vow to never rent again.


It takes 4,833 hours to recoup your deposit.

There is a time limit for collecting 100 million won in pilot training expenses.
Although the house was auctioned off, the author, with a glimmer of hope that he might receive the first payment, left for Hungary and worked for a local company to save money.
However, as the real estate bubble in Korea quickly burst, the auction schedule was delayed several times, and the two-year maturity of the jeonse loan arrived, leaving them with no choice but to return to Korea.
It was only after returning home that he realized that he was not included in the priority payment list that the real estate agent had boasted about.


The author, who was over 30 years old and could no longer be a burden to his parents, decided to pay off the principal and interest of the mortgage loan through a credit card loan.
He calmly confesses about this choice, saying, "I was scammed because I didn't know the loopholes in the jeonse system well, and in return, I decided to accept the punishment of being shackled by the credit card company for a year." (p. 99) However, the author's reality is that to earn 58 million won in jeonse deposit at an hourly wage of 12,000 won by working part-time for 12 hours a day, he would have to work a total of 4,833 hours.
This is the amount you would earn if you worked eight hours a day, every day, without weekends or holidays, for 604 days, 86 weeks, 20 months, or 1 year and 7 months.


The author constantly raises questions about this reality throughout the book.
Why should the victims have to pay the building owner's debt?
For college students, newlyweds, and those just starting out in the workforce, a few tens of millions of won isn't just a life lesson they can forget about.


I applied for emergency livelihood support and received twenty packs of Shin Ramyun.

To receive emergency livelihood support funds, you must obtain a certificate of damage from a rental fraud from the Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation.
However, the certificate of damage from a rental deposit fraud is issued only for the purpose of applying for interest-free or low-interest rental deposit loans.
In short, you cannot obtain a certificate of damage from a rental fraud for the purpose of receiving emergency livelihood support funds.
If you have been a victim of a rental fraud and want to apply for another rental loan and receive a rental fraud victim certificate, you will need to prepare a lot of documents again.
These include a sales item specification, dividend table, lease agreement, copy of the register, lease deposit details, tenant confirmation, resident registration extract, resident registration copy, and income verification.


The author barely managed to obtain a certificate of damage from a rental fraud after going back and forth between the Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corporation and the Korea Housing Welfare Foundation for over a month, but the community center is either unaware of what has happened in their jurisdiction or is asking for documents different from those they had instructed a month ago.
Finally, the author visited the community center with all the necessary documents and what he received that day was twenty packs of Shin Ramyun, given to him by a kind official.


The author says:
If you haven't personally applied for a certificate of damage from a rental fraud or emergency livelihood support, you'll never understand this complicated process.
If I were to summarize it in words, it would only be a few pages, but the process of searching through all these systems, finding the right one for me, inquiring about it, preparing and submitting the documents, waiting for the result, getting rejected, and reapplying is too harsh for ordinary people who have neither time nor money.

“Just as I wasn’t born a victim of a real estate fraud, I also had an ordinary life.
To end up as a victim of a rental fraud
“I will not neglect my life.”

The author, who wrote this book with the determination not to give up on reality that forces him to give up on his dreams, and not to give in to scammers who trample on his dignity and self-esteem, has now completed training on board an ocean-going merchant ship and is currently waiting to board.
I want to do everything I can in my position to ensure that my life doesn't end as a victim of a real estate scam, and that I don't give up on my dreams because of the unavoidable reality and live a life of regret.

But the author's plan does not stop at efforts to achieve personal dreams.
To add my even small voice to the revision of the rental law, I will do everything I can to ensure that the perpetrators are properly punished, including attending rallies, giving media interviews, and posting on social media.


Author Ji-soo Choi dreams of a world where everyone who works hard can live well together, rather than just a world where she can just "eat well and live well," and she says she will work to make her own life better to make that world a reality.
The traces of his 820 days of struggle are completely recorded in “Hell on Earth: The Diary of a 91-Year-Old Man’s Rental Fraud.”
The author, who says, “When my nephews and nieces are old enough to read my book, I hope that the Jeonse Act has been properly revised so that I can tell them that they can sign any Jeonse contract with confidence” (p. 257), earnestly hopes that not only victims of Jeonse fraud, but all victims of financial crimes will not blame themselves, will not condemn themselves, will never die, and will survive to live precious and happy lives.
A true story showing the day in the life of a young man who lives an ordinary life that is neither extreme nor dramatic, neither born with a silver spoon in his mouth nor a dirt spoon in his mouth.
The 820 days of a strong person who can only be shown by someone who never loses their self-esteem and pride even when their knees buckle and tears flow are about to fall, are about to unfold.