We all knew this, but the Hankyoreh confirms — Incheon International Airport taxi drivers have been screwing foreign passengers.
Seoul police booked yesterday 18 people for touting to foreigners so-called “call vans” that overcharged their customers and threatening other taxi drivers.
This was highly organized, with touts splitting up gates and massive payoffs made to an organization boss.
These gangs, called “bonbang,” hung out in front of Gates E and F (when foreign flights came in) looking for foreigners, whom they’d charge three to four times the normal rates.
For instance, a taxi ride from Incheon Airport to Seoul City Hall normally costs 40,000 won (by normal taxi) and 70,000 won (by call van), but these jokers were charging 150,000 won.
Police said that the “bonbang” would not allow other taxi drivers to work in their turf, assaulting drivers who tried. In May, gang members beat the crap out of a taxi driver who didn’t belong to the “bonbang,” leaving the victim with wounds that took four weeks to heal.
Police are investigating whether the “bonbang” used violence or threats on the foreigners they overcharged as well.
An employee at a hotel in Myeongdong said there are at least one or two arguments a week between foreigners and “call van” taxi drivers over fares. He also said — sit down for this — that taxi drivers regularly overcharge US soldiers (!), referring to the hapless GIs as “butter.”
I know. I was shocked, too.
Police believe that the “bonbang” began when Gimpo was Korea’s major international port of entry, and simply moved over to Incheon when the new airport opened. They split up into 20-man morning and afternoon shifts, with high-ranking gang members operating within the airport terminal during the afternoon shifts (when many foreign passengers enter the country). Police also said the JS Call Van and KT Call Van, ostensibly legitimate van taxi companies, cooperated with the “bonbang” in overcharging foreigners. Drivers in both companies eventually graduate into the “bonbang,” too.
The airport was broken up into “turfs,” with “bonbang” members touting inside the terminal, some 40 JS Call Van employees waiting just outside the terminal and 70 KT Call Van employees near the taxi platform. Monthly payoffs were made to the head of the organization, a Mr. Jeong.
Officials with the JS and KT Call Van companies, however, denied involvement.
The Hankyoreh did some on-the-spot investigation of the situation in another piece here.
52 Comments
That’s why I never take taxis from the airport.
Its always great to hear stories of GIs getting ripped off.
What are GIs doing using civilian transport and staying at hotels in Myeongdong anyway. Don’t they have helicopters to get around in and barracks to stay at? For that matter, how come they are allowed to use the international airport anyway, they should be coming in-and-out of the country from Osan Air Base or something so normal people don’t have to put up with their presence.
When I arrived in country for the first time in 1990, by a commercial flight arriving at Kimpo, I stupidly travelled in uniform — white crackerjacks. All of 20 years old, I was an easy mark for the taxi ripoff goon.
But as I was being hustled off, somewhat reluctantly, by this gangster for my $250 (!) fixed-price cab ride to Camp Humphreys — I will never forget this — an older Korean gentleman swooped in, shouting gibberish (it was all gibberish to me at the time) at the taxi driver and physically wresting my seabag away.
I thought I was the object of a struggle over who gets to rip me off, but as it happened the older guy started whacking on the greasy cab driver and scolding him.
I was then told in clear but halting English that the regular taxi stand was over that way, where a taxi could be hired for about $30, or I could go inside and catch the Army’s bus for free. Which I did, and which I regretted because the bus schedule ran on Army time — a lot of hurry up and wait.
But what a perfect introduction to Korea! Lots of scumbags to watch out for, but if you get lucky you’ll meet some real good people.
A few years ago I was picking up a buddy from Incheon, and for the first (and so far the last) time we took a cab back to Seoul. About 5 km out of the airport, I noticed the meter already said 20,000 won. I had an idea what was going on, but at the time didn’t know much Korean and didn’t know anything better to do than transfering to the subway the first chance we got. I forget what the total bill was, but it was ugly. So, I guess I was butter that night. Anyway, glad they are cracking down on these a-holes.
it’s about time. those taxi gangs at the airport are a pretty good example of open lawlessness that just goes ignored. then again, so is the example of me running a red light last night with a motorcycle cop right behind me. of course, he just followed my lead.
i love this place. the New Land of the Free.
Taxi drivers all over the world rip off foreigners who get on at airports. So when Pawi weighs in to this discussion with his usual tu quoque, this time he’ll be right.
Good to know this has been busted up.
It’s not just at the airport you have to watch out. I remember once getting in a taxi at Shindaebang (south of the Hangang) and asking to go to Kangnam station (south of the Hangang). My friend and I were chatting in the back when we suddenly realized we were crossing the Han, over to the North side.
When we asked him in our broken Korean what was going on (”This is the way to Kangnam st? Why are we going towards Itaewon?”), man, that was a real hand-in-the-cookie-jar look. He turned the cab around, and to his credit chopped the bill down to what it probably should have been.
Well, they got my mom for only 70,000 Won, thus I suppose they thought they were being nice.
I made sure to meet her in person from then on.
When I was in 11th grade, my history teacher told me that she was going to Korea for the winter break. With a bit of shame, I warned her about the taxi drivers and told her that she should pretend to be a Canadian (this was winter of 2003, btw).
I then told her that dog meat was excellent, and that she should try it (she is a cat person).
@Brendon Carr
Couldn’t agree with you more. Korea is truly a place of some very warm, caring, groovy people, and some world-class douchebags. And everything in between.
Then again, so is New York, Boston, LA, SF and every other city I’ve ever lived in.
I’d like to know why the cops and the airport authorities allowed this sort of thing to go on for so many years. It’s not as if we’re talking about a random taxi but an organized gang that was operating in broad daylight. It’s not as if nobody ever complained about it.
#2 dlatn — his best effort yet, but aye me hearties there’s still potential within him that’s yet to be revealed — like the deadly iceberg that rips out the heart of a ship yet remains seven/eighths below water.
“…What are GIs doing using civilian transport and staying at hotels in Myeongdong anyway…”
They’re probably going on mid-tour leave (at their own expense, to a destination somewhere in one of the many countries of the vast Pacific rim).
Undoubtedly many of them are going to meet up with their own families, since for the most part Korea remains an unaccompanied one-year tour. In spite of the standard imagery often presented here, they’re not at all really a bunch of hard-boiled expat foreign legionnaires, cut out from the bosom of their own country, infinitely cynical and worldly.
Being Americans they’re probably innocent enough to believe those tourist brochures, you know the ones. With smiling Asian peoples bidding them welcome, to come and see the best of what their countries have to offer (no I don’t mean wine, women and song but rather the interesting sights and attractions such as the host of this blog delights in documenting. It’s not only American civilians who can enjoy these, amazing though that thought may be).
Still - dlatn is basically right. What fools these Americans are! Don’t they know that thousands of Asian eyes are watching their every move, burning with an inner fire that simply cannot be quenched? It’s not for nothing that jealousy is one of the seven deadly sins…
And just who do these Americans think they are, to purport to present themselves as the ministry for Korea’s ills? Americans can’t even keep their own bridges from collapsing, their own mines from caving in, their own borders secure from hordes of interlopers who enter at will. Who are they to think they can defend the tall towers of Seoul, when they can’t even stop the tall towers of Manhattan from ignominious collapse at the hands of the barbarians?
Far better for all if they had never come to Korea. The true destiny of Korea is not the Mall of America, it’s the vast stadiums of Pyongyang — filled with endless seas of dancers twirling to celebrate the Great Leader, jammed with loyal Koreans snapping ultra-precise “flash card” displays –the best this planet has ever seen (and ever will).
Without an iron hand (which the utterly contemptible Americans are incapable of wielding) — the “bonbang” IS Korea. (Oh how I enjoy the natural alliteration — of that new pronunciation).
And you belong there with them, dlatn; I can tell you’d be a natural at the Inchon airport. Get yourself a good blade of Damascus steel, be sure to exact a pound of flesh as part of your tribute (don’t worry you won’t be too late, there’s always a stupid GI or two who doesn’t get “the word”).
For those GI’s who are lucky enough to escape the bonbang, I have but one thing to say: Come home America.
Another scam to wary of: Taxi drivers will go to the limousine bus stops going to the Incheon airport and offer very cheap sounding rides (12,000 won from Seoul to Incheon airport).
What they do not tell you is that the toll booth charge on the high way out to the airport is not included in this fee, and you have to pay that (another 12,000 won or so).
So the total price is over 20,000 won, which is actually not bad for a taxi ride to the Incheon terminal, but it’s more than double what you would pay just to ride the limousine bus (assuming you are traveling alone).
Probably one of the taxi drivers in these gangs who wants to paid to get back to the airport as quickly as possible so he can find some more ‘butter’ passengers.
These wankers have been asking me for a taxi ride as soon as I stepped out of Customs for years, atarting at Kimpo. Once in a while out of boredom I ask, “How much?” and it’s something ridiculous. “Sorry, Chief, I think I’ll take the Korean Air limo over there.”
It’s true that other airports around Asia are pretty bad at this, but they are usually not a hub of Asia.
I second #11, that’s the real scandal — how long has been going on with the authorities doing nothing?
Aside from turf wars and the violence which can’t be excused, the taxi drivers charge what they can get and of course you can negotiate. If a GI or any foreigner is stupid enough to get ripped off that much then they deserve it.
With limousines into all parts of Seoul from 7-10,000won (last time I was in Korea) who’d even think about a taxi unless extrmemely late or carrying that much baggage that you are more worried about the over weight fee not the taxi!
To strike a positive and Korea-friendly note: Are the airport buses in Seoul cool, or what?
I’m glad these criminals have been stopped. They have been doing this for years and not just at Incheon/Kimpo. I’ve also seen the same activities outside of the Taegu and Kimhae airports.
Another thing to watch out for is there are also organized gangs at the train stations. Nearly every time I’ve arrived in Seoul station, an English speaking Korean will approach me and ask if I need a taxi. Once I asked one of them how much for a ride to the Hyatt Hotel in Itaewon and he told me W30,000. A regular taxi costs about W5,000 to the Hyatt depending on traffic so those guys are overcharging 500%.
I usually have a lot of fun with these dudes. I can spot them from far away — after all they look like lower-rung mobsters or cops[*] and before they open their trap and ask “Need taxi?” I greet them with various un-pleasantries, which, depending on my mood, vary from “Shall I cop a cop?” to “Fuck off asshole!”. Their stunned expressions are always a delight. Not yet outside the terminal, and already having a ball…
These days, I usually take the KAL Limousine or the City Air Terminal Limousine, depending on where I go, and take a cab back to the airport.
When I worked in Seoul, I usually cabbed it both ways, since the company paid anyway, and no KAL Limousine brought me close enough from home, and I have to say that after dealing with the bonbang, I still had to deal with the Deluxe Taxi drivers before I could reach the “normal” taxis. They really made it hard for travelers to take a cab.
Seoul is one of the worst airports for this in Asia. I’ve been around quite a bit — between two to 6 flights a week — and nowhere in Asia is it this bad [with the exception maybe of Jakarta, but just]. Hong and Singapore are of course light-years away from this, very orderly honest; Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok have a booth inside the airport where you can book a fixed-price taxi/limousine [around 30 euros to downtown, which can be a good deal, if the traffic is bad, as it more often than not is]; both of Taipei’s airports [and, for what matters, the small thing that counts as an airport in Tainan] are orderly and free of touts, as far as I can see; even Shanghai and Beijing are OK, comparatively well organised and with very cheap taxis [and of course the police in Communist China being scary, nothing untoward happens in these otherwise crappy airports].
It’s a good thing Podori decided to do something, and I guess I’ll have a hard look next time I arrive in Incheon, in a few days.
—
[*] Ever notice how 깡패 and cops look basically the same… Has to be a reason!
dda
Gore Vidal: “You have to realize, the police are recruited from the criminal classes.” It’s everywhere I guess.
#20,
You shouldn’t take that statement too literally. Gore Vidal gets off on provoking people.
Ever hear of ‘kickbacks’?
# 3,
I always had a gut feeling that Brendon was ex-military. Anyways.
In my trip to Korea my relatives warned me about taxi drivers so I made sure I spoke Korean without an accent (I do have a slight Southern California draw) and kept a close eye that the driver wasn’t going around in circles. I actually found that the drivers of the regular taxis to be a bit more honest then the guys driving the deluxe ones.
#20 Herod, I think in the case of Korea, cops and gangsters share a social background: they are misfits and outcasts. Mostly.
To the defense of honest cab drivers, my best experiences with taxis were also in Korea, whether it be 개인, employees of cab companies or 모범.
# 25,
Good point. I think you’ll find dishonest taxi drivers everywhere, particularly if the patron does’t know the language or the geography of said city.
Agree with #25. The average Korean taxi driver is a pretty nice and honest dude. When you think how many taxis you take here, and how seldom you have a bad experience…Taxis in America, on the other hand. Yeesh.
And let’s not get started on NYC cab drivers, who, for many of them, are the ones whon DON’T speak the language…
By the way I just arrived in HK from BKK — which explains the different flags on one page
— and yup, there you go again, very nice taxi drivers on both sides, and very cheap.
Herod (#17): Yes—I don’t know what it’s like in other Asian countries, but the airport bus system is second to none. We even regularly take the bus directly from Daegu back to Incheon airport, totally bypassing the most congested parts of Seoul.
I’ve always said “No” to these guys, as I/we’ve always taken the bus or in the old days at Gimpo, the subway; I didn’t realize they were actually criminally organized rip-off artists, though!
…And for what it’s worth, it’s now possible to take the train from Incheon airport to Gimpo, then Line 5 to downtown Seoul—although for direct, point-to-point service, the limo buses are probably still superior. Once the rail line’s extended right to Seoul Station, it might be a different matter.
Welcome to Sparkling Korea. First world airport, third world taxi drivers.
#11 - Someguy… - “I’d like to know why the cops and the airport authorities allowed this sort of thing to go on for so many years.”
Most likely what Zonath said on #22, “kickbacks”. In my area it was the airport authorities that actually ran the scam. City officials tried to “fix it” but all they did was supplant one group of scammers with another.
Sorry a bit off topic, but Incheon airport likes to boast that it is “World best Airport”.
I’ll be pedantic, but they can’t get the grammar correct!.
Secondly and onto my real gripe. There are two counters that sell travel insurance. Samsung and some other Korean company.
So I go to the other company counter to buy travel insurance, and they won’t sell it to me. Why? We don’t insure foreigners? They’ll insure my wife, but not me. This in an “International” airport. These twats are allowed to operate a business that engages in racial discrimination, in an “International Airport” Was I SPARKLING, more like FUMING.
Remembered something else. In all of my travels, to other countries rarely, and I mean very rarely, have I seen people going through immigration, being called aside to go into the “side room”.
At Incheon airport however, every single time I’m going through I’ll see half a dozen escorted to the side room. I usually wait 20 minutes (way too long), so in a 24 hour period, there must be hundreds going into the “side room”. Nearly always those called into the side room are South East Asians. What’s going on!
“At Incheon airport however, every single time I’m going through I’ll see half a dozen escorted to the side room. I usually wait 20 minutes (way too long), so in a 24 hour period, there must be hundreds going into the “side room”. Nearly always those called into the side room are South East Asians. What’s going on!”
Not sure, but just don’t eat the soondaeguk at Airport View Restaurant.
This is so true. I just left Korean via Incheon yesterday. There were announcements every 15 minutes about avoiding “unsolicited” taxis or vans.
Hah! sick… :-O
In July I took the Metro-train to/from Incheon Airport, a very pleasant, fast and cheap experience. Line #5 to Gimpo then the new high-speed line, worked like a dream and there were plenty of seats. Coming back I changed thru Incheon to Line #1, and that was more time and less convenient but still superior to either bus or taxi, IMHO. When the line gets extended right to Seoul Station, it’ll be excellent (and hooking up to the excellent & frequent KTX, too).
Yes, the PTB should’ve built the Airport high-speed Metro sooner, to open when the airport did — but better late than never. Transportation logistics here ARE being effectively improved… Far from the hopeless-stagnation situation of some other nations…
#34,
What’s going on? Without knowing what’s behind the door, I’d say a little bit of ‘racial profiling’ is at work.
PS. As for the reason why it goes on…Do you think the average Korean cares if the government mistreats visible minorities?
Kudos to airport authority for making the problem public and using the PA system to warn people coming in. As someone above stated, one of the few countries worse at this is Indonesia. Nice folks, but they’ll literally be hauling your bags out to their taxi before you know what’s happening.
You dinna wanta do that, Guv’. The train is slow as molasses, stops every five minutes in seemingly useless stops in the middle of nowhere, and speed never exceeds 40 mph. It’s the contrary of HK’s Tokyo’s Airport Express.
On Japundit, one of the two trackbacks so far for this post, there was a comment about traveling from Japan to Korea. If you have to go to Japan from Korea, or the other way round, consider using the Kimp’o — Haneda line. It may be slightly more expensive, but travel time between city centres and airports is much shorter and cheaper. Immigration is faster, too.
I once paid 80 000W from Incheon city to the airport via taxi, because I am the perfect sucker or rather another reincarnated bodhisattva who rains blessings on the various merchants of travel.
In my experience, taxi drivers are less likely to rip you off if you can speak a little Korean and ask a few questions about nothing in particular.
That’s poor staff training. They can’t sell travel insurance to non-residents; there’s no ban on sale to foreigners. Your Korean foreigners’ registration card can solve the problem.
And I think there are actually four travel-insurance kiosks in the airport: Samsung Fire & Marine, AIG, LIG (formerly LG Insurance), and Meritz (formerly Oriental Fire & Marine).
I normally get the AIG insurance because of fondness for the company, but on occasion (agents out to lunch, leaving the kiosk unattended, or a line of people waiting for AIG) I’ve broken down and bought from a couple of the Korean companies. Only once in 10 years has one of the agents given me the “No Foreigners” line, and when she refused to take my foreigners’ ID card, I sidled over to the other company’s counter and bought a policy.
Thanks Brendon, maybe it’s poor staff training, on many occasions it seems like closed mindedness, like only Koreans are allowed to breath in Korea. You can’t _________ (insert) because you’re a foreigner. Leaves a very bad impression.
Part of this is the army’s fault. They give their soldiers, many of them going out of their country for the first time in their lives, absolutely no information on what to do and where to go when they get here. They don’t even know that there is a free bus, and those that do make it to the USO bus don’t know that they all have to go to the 1st replacement center in Yongsan, instead I hear “my orders say Humphreys, where’s that bus?”.
#2 dlatn; A number of years ago there was a special flight to Osan only for military members, I don’t know if they reinstated it, but it was more cost effective for service members to use the civilian airlines, so they ended it.
oh, and grin and bear it asshole, it’s for your own good.
Austin–
I was told that you can’t get travelers insurance if you are ‘traveling’ back to your country of citizenship since technically you are not traveling, but going home. That is what I was told in 2004 — the last time I tried.
Insurance for going to a third country seems to be OK.
I’m with DDA: The lack of an express train means you are way better off taking a bus to Incheon. Taking the subway to or from Kimpo for a Haneda run may be faster than the bus once in a while, but not faster than a taxi.
This country doesn’t get express trains like Japan does, which is unfortunate. If they had a fast train that stopped only at Seoul Station, Youngdungpo and Incheon Airport then we’d be in the ballpark.
I’ve never bought travel insurance. What’s the purpose of it?
I was welcomed by these punks when I first arrived in Korea; fortunately my fiancee met me at the airport and escorted me to the taxi stand. The taxi guys didn’t overcharge, but were peeved that we only wanted to go to Incheon on the meter. We had to walk down the line till we found someone to take us, and he made us wait 20 minutes for him to have lunch before he left.
Last time I was accosted by one of these guys, I told him in Korean that what he was doing was illegal and gave foreigners a bad impression of his country. He apologized and said he was just trying to make a living, since his company didn’t have a contract at the airport.
Now I know better.
It’s about time the police did something. Incheon’s a world-class airport, and doesn’t need to be spoiled by thugs and turf wars.
BTW, I always buy insurance wen i head back to Canada–but you have to buy it in the airport. There’s only one company that sells it to foreigners, but you don’t want to be stuck paying North American medical bills if you get sick. I used it once, an was very glad I had bought it. It paid for my medicine, too, which is not cheap in Canada.
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