Recently, a netizen posted on an online community claiming that former Crayon Pop member Ellin, who is now a BJ, scammed him into donating over 1 billion won (~$860,000 USD) on her broadcasts.

Ellin posted an official statement regarding these claims:

Hello, this is former Crayon Pop member and current Afreeca BJ HiEllin. I am writing this statement regarding the “romance scam” rumors and claims. I have currently put my Afreeca TV account to private and have disabled comments on my YouTube. The distorted claims regarding the scam were getting out of hand and have decided to release this statement. This statement will be written compactly, only stating the hard facts.

Person A is known to have watched my broadcasts since the beginning and have always given star balloons. But unlike the rumors, I have never forced or asked for the star balloons from person A. I have never asked for balloons from my viewers ever. Person A did donate a significantly higher amount of star balloons than other viewers, and it was known to everyone who watched my broadcasts. It is an implied rule as a BJ to communicate and shout out users and fans, and I was able to talk a bit more with him than other fans.

Person A sent messages and chats asking for my phone number and demanded to communicate on a more personal level. I denied his request as I felt that talking personally with one fan would not have a good image for other fans. However, he continued to send more star balloons during my broadcasts, but I was not able to react to these gestures because I felt uncomfortable. But aside from all this, other fans started to be disappointed that I was not communicating with them on broadcasts. Because of this, I had no choice but to give Person A my phone number and KakaoTalk.

The problem starts here. Person A felt entitled to contact me personally and know all my schedules that only my manager would know. I felt that if I didn’t continue to contact him, other users would start to have negative opinions about me. After some time, person A started talking about living together. I denied his request, explaining that I could not understand why he was doing this. And today, the “romance scam” claims were posted. The evidence for the above statement will be uploaded on my page soon. I am also going to take civil and criminal action against person A for releasing false information. I apologize to all my fans for all the trouble that this has caused.

The netizen also revealed that he posted these claims in hopes to prevent others from being victimized by someone who plays with a person’s emotions.

Many are curious to see how this “romance scam” event will end.