Squid Game Viewers Send Cash To Bank Account Seen In Final Episode

You may have noticed that Squid Game is just about the only thing people are talking about at the minute.

The South Korean series has become an international smash hit since its release on Netflix last month, and fans who have made it to the end of the series have been sending money to a bank account featured in the final episode.

The survival drama sees contestants take part in life and death games for money, and people have been sending cash to an account used by the protagonist Gi-hun.

Netflix

Director Hwang Dong-hyuk said in a recent interview with local media that the account belonged to one of the show's producers - but they have since decided to close it.

He said: "I heard that the producer has been receiving deposits in the amount of 456 KRW (£0.3/$0.38) from people who watched the show.

"To prevent further deposits from happening the production team decided to close the account to avoid potential issues in the future."

Fans of the show will recognise the significance of that sum. Gi-hun is known as player 456 and the total cash prize for the survival game is KRW 45.6 billion (£28 million/$38 million).

This isn't the first time the show has had real-life ramifications.

Netflix had to edit out scenes featuring a person's actual number after curious viewers bombarded them with texts and calls.

Speaking to Money Today, the phone owner - a businesswoman from Seongju, south-east South Korea - said: "I have been receiving calls and texts endlessly, 24/7, to the point that it's hard for me to go on with daily life.

"This is a number that I've been using for more than 10 years, so I'm quite taken aback.

"At first I didn't know why, but my friend told me that my number came out in Squid Game and that's when I realised."

Netflix

She continued: "It's to the point where due to people reaching out without a sense of day and night due to their curiosity.

"Some 4,000 phone calls come in every day. I did not even realize what was going on as I did not watch the series."

A Netflix spokesperson said: "Together with the production company, we are working to resolve this matter, including editing scenes with phone numbers where necessary."

Topics: TV and Film, Netflix, Squid Game

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey