In a recent episode of the YouTube channel “Life84,” Lee Joo Bin spent the day at Seoul Land amusement park with host Kian84. During their conversation, Kian84 brought up her widely circulated 2017 ID photo. “This photo has become quite famous,” he noted, to which Lee replied, “I thought it would be a good thing to become well-known but it turned into a case of identity theft.”

Lee explained that her image was misused across various sectors. “My photo was used by fake call center reps, insurance agents, investment brokers, and even used to pose as second-hand car dealers. Scammers used my face to trick people into investing. Even a fake national ID card was made using my photo, and I received a court summons.”

She added, “I even got a call from my agency asking if I had committed investment fraud. There have been several scam cases involving that photo.”

Kian84 joked, “It’s probably because your face looks so trustworthy. If someone like that tried to sell me something, I’d probably buy it too,” making both laugh.

During the episode, Lee also shared that she was once part of the debut lineup for the girl group Rainbow. “I was briefly a trainee in high school not because I was dying to be a celebrity, but because trainees only had to attend four classes before heading to the agency. I wasn’t that into studying, so I started just to skip class,” she said.

“But over time, I started to enjoy it,” she continued. “What started as ‘just a year or two’ became ten years. I didn’t think I had what it took to act, so I told myself I’d try for one more year and that turned into ten. Thankfully, I ended up landing a role in The Roundup: Punishment.”

Lee also revealed that during her early 20s, she made about 4.5 million KRW (roughly 3,400 USD) per month working part-time as a fitting model. “I did two shoots a week, earning 450,000 KRW per session. That added up to four or five shoots a month. I’ve been living on my own since I was 21, so that money covered my tuition, rent, and living expenses,” she said.

Sources: Naver