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Fantasys livid SF9 voting fanbase CHEATED band of music show wins by stealing over $4K

A fanbase has been stealing money from fans since 2020 meant to help in voting for SF9 on K-pop music shows

As K-pop fans know by now, music shows are an integral part of promotions in the South Korean music industry. Whether the artists are mainstream or indie, music shows are the easiest way for the songs to reach the general public, increase popularity, commercial success and gain new fans. On top of it, good-natured competition is fostered as new releases compete for a trophy of the week. With 10s and 20s of releases every week, these wins help the non-fans and general public to prioritize their focus on what they think is the best song of that promotional period. This is why SF9 fans are upset at a voting fanbase.

While international fans don’t pay much heed to music show wins, companies take it as a deciding factor of their artists’ success in South Korea. The artists may have had successful world tours and charted on international charts like Billboard and iTunes, but if they are not popular in their own country, the companies sometimes resort to harsh decisions. This is why fans band together to help their favorites get as many music show wins as they can and even resort to mass voting and streaming to collect the points needed to win. But it looks like SF9 fans were cheated.

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An SF9 fanbase embezzles funds

User @SF9music_, a trusted Korean fanbase collected funds from Fantasys (SF9’s fandom) with the promise that they would use it for streaming and voting. And while SF9 got their fifth music show win with 'Trauma' on December 3, fans noticed that the points did not add up with the voting fanbases claims. For their recent win, SF9 won purely through album sales of ‘Rumination’ which is an impressive feat but fans felt betrayed as the digital streaming points were 7.  

The voting fanbase was handling funds since 2020 which led to Fantasys realizing that they had been scammed as they noticed the voting and streaming points for ‘Tear Drop’, the survival show ‘Kingdom’ and ‘Summer Breeze’ era in 2020 were non-existent which did not make sense for a widely popular group like SF9 who have a loyal fanbase that has been steadily growing since their debut in 2016. Some fans calculated the amount that was embezzled to be a minimum of 4.8 million won (~$4,000). They  then had the fanbase @SF9music_ also admit that they had in fact embezzled and would fix it as soon as possible.

'Time to go to jail'

Fans and non-fans are upset that a fanbase took advantage of fans’ love and loyalty to a group. Non-fans also supported Fantasys as they claimed they too would have been distraught if someone in their fandom had cheated them with such a huge amount. One fan pointed out that the fanbase had also been accused of being a stalker, “I don't think you all realize how serious this actually is, the kfanbase's admin was a sasaeng and used the money for themselves  on top of that even spread rumors about some of the members and revealed their dorm address. It really isn't funny.”

Another Twitter user shared that it wasn’t funny, “Y'all laugh in the qrts until this shit happens to your fandom.” One fan cleared up the confusion, “Some of y'all can't understand what embezzlement is. The digital points were only 7 bcs they did not stream and the 0 score is bcs it's their 1st week of promotion. No one manipulated scores, in fact, they managed to win with album sales after what that fanbase did.” One angry fan tweeted, “The way you have stripped a lot of opportunities for sf9, a hard-working group who deserves so much recognition... you will never feel happy again f*ck you.”

Another Fantasy brought up the scores during SF9’s time on the survival show ‘Kingdom’, “The 3 digit digitals of believer in kd is all ur fault!! while all other teams got 4 digital digitals and the endless chart out. kingdom era was all ur fault for nvr doing anything. tear drop era we almost won bt lost bcz of digitals agn. its all bcz u chose pedicure over sf9.” One fan was disappointed over the lost potential wins, “You mf..you literally are the reason for SF9's suffering digitals....all those wins SF9 could have got if you asshole could have actually used it for the comeback.” Another fan brought up the time ‘Tear Drop’ lost every win by just a couple of points, “Your apology can't give Tear Drop a win I think it's time to go to jail.”