JYP Entertainment said Saturday it plans to pursue legal action against a KakaoTalk hacking scammer falsely identifying as Twice member Jihyo.

On Saturday, screenshots uploaded to Twice’s official Instagram account showed a hacker had urged Jihyo’s family to send 5 million won ($4,420) by pretending to be Jihyo.

(Yonhap)

The singer warned the hacker by captioning the photo “Are you even finding out my family members’ phone numbers because I’m a celebrity? I won’t tolerate it again. Enough is enough.”

In response to the scam, JYP Entertainment said it will take legal action, in a statement released via Twice’s official fan club website.
“Our policy is to legally protect our artists and to take firm actions against all actions of defamation and privacy invasion. However, such illegal actions have not stopped but even spread to our artists’ family members.”

JYP Entertainment announced that it will take all possible legal action against offenses such as abusing the personal information of artists and their families, contacting artists, sharing photos that violate artists’ privacy or portrait rights, and attempting to hack artists’ social media accounts and private information.

The agency promised to make full efforts to protect its artists and asked fans to cooperate by reporting cases of privacy invasion.

By Lee Tae-hee (taeheelee@heraldcorp.com)