Fans found taking out private loans and extra jobs to pay for star gifts

Article: 'Part time jobs to pay for celeb gifts'... gifting foreign cars to stars, fans even taking private loans

Source: Kuki News via Nate

(Skipping paragraphs of stuff mentioned in previous articles about the same topic)

With the competition between fans heating up, there have also been instances of celebrities and agencies actually seeking such gifts up front. A popular idol group member of a three member group is one such example. 'A' released a gift list to the fans asking for electronic products, computers, home theater equipment, and even specific gifts for their parents. Fans responded by gifting A's parents with expensive health products along with the note, 'Thank you for giving birth to A.'

Solo singer 'B' who recently made a comeback gave his/her fans a list of 'birthday gifts' that led to his fans equipping his studio with expensive audio equipment. B even made sure to write the  list to specific fanclubs so that the gifts didn't overlap. The same tactic was used to furnish his home.

Girl groups and other female celebrities will even show off the luxury gifts they receive like heels, handbags, and rings on their SNS accounts.

To provide these stars with such lavish gifts, fans have resorted to taking out private loans and extra part time jobs. Lee Hyun Joo (24) also took out a private loan but had to eventually ask her parents for help once she couldn't meet the payments. "I was desperate to not lose to a competing fancafe."

Seoul University's Psychology professor Kwak Geum Joo had to comment, "Fans feel a type of pleasure from giving gifts to celebrities. They turn their affections into a physical product, which promotes competition between each other. It's not a healthy fandom culture at all."

Cube Entertainment's Ahn Hyo Jin added, "It puts us in an uncomfortable situation when fans give excessive gifts. The company will return gifts that we feel is too much and try to lead them to giving to charities instead."

When we met with another hardcore fan Kang Min Kyung (27), she gave a deep sigh. She first started 'supporting' her star with simple gifts but the culture turned out to be nothing at all like what she expected.

When her favorite singer 'K' was making his comeback, his fanclub started collecting money to deliver a healthy lunch box set for his comeback stage. Because of her older age, the fancafe admin expected her to make a $100+ donation. An additional $80 was demanded for the 100 or so other lunch boxes prepared for the broadcast staff.

"Other cafes will just order a lunch car, which costs upwards of several hundreds. When a singer makes an acting debut and starts script reading practices, we all have to order lunch boxes for both the cast and the staff."

With celebrities showing off what they receive on SNS, the competition between fanclubs to provide the best grows only more severe.

"There are a lot of celebrities who receive money from fans directly to their bank accounts. Whenever a star leaves a comment somewhere like, 'The amp in my studio is broken so I can't work,' there are already dozens of fans messaging him for his bank account so that they can send money over."

Some stars have even taken to indirectly asking fans for gifts for their parents and their pets. All it takes is a message saying, "I need to buy my parents a gift for Parents' Day..." and he'll receive gift certificiates by the dozens.

"Giving their parents gifts is not even the worst of the issue. Some fans even volunteer to work as a chaffeur for their parents. I once saw a fan go to the star's parents' house to clean it for them."

One fanclub admin had to resort to using her credit card to pay for a luxury gift and a birthday party. Unable to make her payments, she eventually took out another private loan and is now working two jobs to pay them all off.

Kang's fan friend took out a $3,000 loan for her star's birthday but is now paying double that in interest. Fortunately, she was able to help alleviate the burden by selling some of the photos and videos she took of her oppa.

yo this is so long ... kudos if you're reading it.

There have also been several instances of fans cheating each other out of their money, such as in 2010 when T-ara's fanclub collected nearly $10,000 only to have the admin run away with it.

A DC Inside rep had to say, "These fraud cases happen a lot more than you'd think but until an actual crime is reported, the site has no way to help."

There aren't only celebrities who request fan gifts, as several many have rejected them just as often as well. Actress Shin So Yool returned all of the gifts her fans delivered on her birthday, saying, "Thank you so much but I hope you'll give to the needy instead." Touched, fans became even more hardcore fans of her.

SHINee's Taemin also returned all of the presents delivered to his agency. A rep of his company said, "Taemin is so grateful for the love of his fans. He feels satisfied with their love and asked that they spend the gifts where it's important. Everyone was touched by that."

Lee Seung Gi's fanbase supports in an entirely different way. For his birthdays and anniversaries, they'll group up and volunteer at charities, bringing with them armfuls of necessary equipment.

G-Dragon's fans will use their donations collected to donate to the needy under his name. Yang Yoseob's fans are also known for their consistent donations. Charities that EXO and other SM Entertainment stars are known for volunteering at have been attracting fans even internationally.

Other fanclubs will donate rice wreaths at drama production conferences.

Super Junior's Siwon recently stressed the importance of giving to charities at his fan meeting and is known for his many volunteer activities through his church.

-

1. [+191, -10] Fans seem stupid for giving stars all that stuff, but the stars seem just as stupid for accepting all of it too.

2. [+167, -6] This is why everyone is obsessed with becoming a celebrity. All you have to do is get popular and you can get all these things for free.. Then when they get forgotten, they come out on talk shows and cry about it. What a cycle.

3. [+155, -5] I'm a stupid fangirl myself but I really don't understand fans who will spend that kind of money for gifts. If they have the extra money for it, then it's not my business, but I know several students around me who will spend several hundreds without a blink. I have nothing to say about that.

-