Plastic surgery reviews on Naver cafes: what to watch out for

01What a Naver cafe is

A Naver cafe is a members-based online community inside Naver, a Korean web portal. Anyone can create a cafe, and the operator sets the conditions for joining and the rights to read posts.

There are two main kinds of cafes where people talk a lot about plastic surgery. One is a large cafe like Yeouya, where women share everyday life and also ask about clinics. The other is a cafe like Gaseum Apeun Saramdeul, a breast surgery cafe, that gathers stories about one kind of surgery or revision surgery. Yeouya is covered separately.

02How reviews appear

Cafe posts are split into public posts and members-only posts. Plastic surgery cafes have many members-only posts. In a sample WikiDoc looked at in August 2026, more than two thirds of new posts on Yeouya and about 86% on Gaseum Apeun Saramdeul were members-only.

When you join a cafe, you get a level. Your level goes up as you write posts and comments, and some boards can be read only at higher levels.

Public posts show up in Naver search results. If you search for "nose surgery reviews" with a clinic name, cafe posts appear together with blog posts.

03Tricks seen on Naver cafes

Recommendations passed around where only members can see

Members-only posts cannot be seen from outside. Even if the same clinic keeps being recommended inside, people on other sites cannot know, and they cannot dispute it. It is a convenient place for those doing promotion.

Clinic names that slip away into private messages

"I sent you a message." "I'll tell you by message." The clinic name and price disappear from the public post and go into a personal message inside the cafe. Of the 408 comments that named a clinic on the Gaseum Apeun Saramdeul cafe, which WikiDoc collected in October 2026, 11 also mentioned private messages. On Yeouya, the word "message" (as in private message) appeared in 1,526 comments on public posts over one month.

Reviews aimed at search

Because public posts show up in Naver search, some reviews are written to be caught by search. They put the clinic name and the treatment name many times in the title and body. They have many photos and smooth sentences. In 2017, the Korea Fair Trade Commission sanctioned clinics that had ad agencies post writing on blogs and cafes made to look like customer reviews.

Promotional accounts that built up their level

A high level makes an account look like a trustworthy member. But levels go up with the number of posts and comments. Watch out for accounts that post many short comments to build up their level and then start recommending clinics. A level is not proof that the account is a real customer.

04How to read Naver cafe posts safely

Click the recommender's nickname and look at their other posts and comments.
Do not contact people who share a clinic only by private message.
Do not treat a member's level as a reason to trust them.
For smooth reviews you found in search, compare them with reviews on other sites.
For a clinic praised only in one cafe, see whether the same story comes up in other cafes and other apps too.

05FAQ

What is a Naver cafe?

It is a members-based online community inside Naver, a Korean web portal. Anyone can create a cafe, and the operator sets the rules for joining and for reading posts.

Why should I be careful with members-only posts?

Only cafe members can read them, so it is hard to check or dispute the content from outside. It is also hard to compare the recommendations made there with other sites.

Can I trust reviews that show up in cafe search results?

A post that ranks well in search is not necessarily a good review. Many promotional posts are written to show up in search. Look at the writer's other posts too.

Reviews on the Yeouya cafe: what to watch out for
According to WikiDoc's research as of November 1, 2026, clinic recommendations in the comments on Yeouya, a large women's community cafe on Naver, should be read as promotion comments, not patient reviews. Three accounts split the day into 8-hour shifts to push Byul Plastic Surgery, and one account posted the same "a friend recommended it" comment on 339 posts with a link to a Brillyn Clinic sign-up form. Some comments copied someone else's "I had surgery here" comment and swapped only the clinic name. More than 900 accounts pushed the same clinic in more than 10 posts, and the clinic with the most such accounts was DA Plastic Surgery.
Sungyesa reviews: why you should not trust them
According to WikiDoc's research on November 1, 2026, Sungyesa (short for a Korean phrase meaning "people getting prettier through plastic surgery") has promotional accounts that pretend to be patients and push clinics. For example, the nickname "Mamel**" commented on 17 different posts in 43 minutes and slipped in The Door Plastic Surgery and Top Tier Plastic Surgery. Sungyesa promotes a "patented broker blocking system", but after watching it for a long time, WikiDoc does not see that kind of management taking place.
Gangnam Unni reviews: what to watch out for
According to WikiDoc's survey on November 1, 2026, an account that posted a question asking about clinics on Gangnam Unni replied under its own post with an AI's refusal, "I can't help with writing disguised promotional posts." Groups of dozens of accounts took consecutive comment numbers on a single post more than 300 times. Gangnam Unni community comments also came in more than 4 times as often on weekdays as on weekends. One account, Heulko**, pushed Woori Plastic Surgery under 414 different posts, and more than twenty accounts pasted the same sentence for DA Plastic Surgery, the clinic named most often. Different accounts also posted "I had it done here too" comments that match down to the letter. Recommendation comments on Gangnam Unni should be read as promotional comments, not patient reviews.
Reviews on Babitalk: what to watch out for
According to WikiDoc's research on November 1, 2026, clinic recommendations in Babitalk community comments should be read as promotional comments, not patient reviews. In one post, the author and 8 accounts that left congratulating comments had member numbers in a row. 21 accounts wrote the same line, "I had revision surgery with Dr. Yeo Hyeon-dong at TS". Looking at more than a hundred thousand Babitalk comments from May to October 2026, we found 70 accounts that push the same 7 clinics, including Ucanb Plastic Surgery and Borndi Plastic Surgery. They wrote thousands of comments, all on weekday daytime, never on weekends or evenings. 75% of the comments that named these clinics came from these 70 accounts. Counting every clinic the same way, the clinic these groups of accounts pushed most was DA Plastic Surgery (134 accounts).
Reviews on Yeoshin Ticket: what to watch out for
Yeoshin Ticket is an app that sells discount deals for skin and beauty treatments. Clinics pay for ad exposure, and those that pay more are placed near the top of the screen. Because reviews are tied to deal purchases, they tend to lean toward price and friendliness rather than treatment results.

Sources

WikiDoc review observation data · Count of public posts and comments on the Yeouya and Gaseum Apeun Saramdeul cafes, 2026-08 to 2026-10
Report on Korea Fair Trade Commission sanctions, Kyunghyang Shinmun, 2017-09-17 ↗
Medical Service Act, Article 27 (ban on luring or referring patients) · Article 56 (ban on ads using treatment experiences) ↗

History

Rev. 1 · show 1 entries

Rev.	Time	Editor	Summary
1	2026-10-28 18:30	@translator	Translated from Korean rev. 1

Cite WikiDoc, 「Plastic surgery reviews on Naver cafes: what to watch out for」, wikidoc.app/en/guide/reviews/naver-cafe/ (2026-10-28 retrieved)