“Four people got sick after eating steamed clams... Send 200,000 won” ... CCTV shows the customer had never even been to the restaurant

[Financial News]  A customer who demanded payment for a meal and medical expenses, claiming to have become ill after eating steamed clams, turned out never to have even visited the restaurant. 
On the 5th, JTBC’s Scandal Supervisor featured the story of A, who runs a seafood restaurant in Seoul.
A received a call from a man while preparing for lunch service the previous day. The man claimed that “four men ate steamed clams at around 7 p.m. on the 2nd and all of us got sick,” and that “I was lying down all day yesterday and have only just pulled myself together enough to call.” He reportedly pressed the point, asking, “If it were just me who got sick, I might have thought nothing of it, but all four of us got sick—doesn’t that mean there’s something wrong with the food?”
A immediately apologized. When A asked where he had been sitting, the man reportedly replied, “By the door.”
A said they had always been meticulous about handling ingredients, explaining, “We get fresh clams every day at dawn, make a point of selling them that same day, and even throw away any that are left over.”
A continued, “The customer kept saying, ‘I didn’t call to get compensation; I called because I felt so upset,’ and, ‘I’m frustrated. I feel awful.’ All four had gone to the hospital. He said his own medical bill came to around 20,000 won, and that the others in his party had paid similar amounts. He demanded a refund of around 200,000 won, including the cost of the meal.”
In response to the man’s request, A said, “Insurance claims can take a long time, so if you come in, I’ll process the receipts for the meal for all four of you and the medical expenses, and send you the money.” The man reportedly replied, “It’s a 30-minute drive, and I don’t want to waste money on gas, so just transfer it.”
But the man sent only one photo of a hospital receipt, and the date was not visible. When A asked him to send receipts for all four people with the dates showing, as well as the meal receipt, contact stopped. Suspicious, A reviewed the restaurant’s CCTV footage, but saw no one who appeared to be the man on the date he had mentioned, or on the previous two days.
A called the man again, but heard only an automated message saying that incoming calls to the number had been suspended.
A check by Scandal Supervisor found that the hospital receipt the man had sent was identical, down to the won, to a receipt issued in the spring of the previous year that had been posted online—from the photo’s composition to the total medical bill, the amount covered by the National Health Insurance Service, and the amount paid by the patient.
A lamented, “I’m glad I didn’t transfer the money, but I feel like I was taken for a ride. When customers raise an issue, self-employed business owners try to resolve it amicably, even if the business isn’t at fault. It’s upsetting to go through something like this, and I nearly got duped like a fool.”
[email protected] Kim Su-yeon Reporter