An owner of a local travel agency has been indicted on charges of defrauding hundreds of foreign tourists with bogus hotel reservations, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The 32-year-old agent, only identified by his surname Kim, is accused of accepting deposits from more than 230 foreign tourists then failing to make the hotel reservations between June and December 2012, prosecutors said.

The victims were unable to stay at the hotels they thought they had previously booked, prosecutors said, adding that Kim stole nearly 104 million won ($93,000) through the scam.

Kim, who has been managing the small travel agency in Seoul since 2007, committed the alleged fraud after his business started to struggle, they said.

“The suspect abused the fact that foreigners have difficulty reporting to local authorities despite the damages,” a prosecutor said.

The prosecution probe was initiated after victims had reported the alleged fraud to a state tourism agency.

Thanks to the continuing popularity of “hallyu” (Korean wave), the number of foreign tourists to South Korea topped 1 million in March, according to the Korea National Tourism Organization.

March marks the first time that the monthly figure has surpassed the 1 million level.

The KNTO said it will make efforts to prevent similar scams targeting foreign tourists, adding that the travel agency has been forcibly closed down. (Yonhap News)