KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 — K-drama series The Art of Sarah has surged to the top of Netflix’s non-English TV rankings in Malaysia, drawing viewers with a story that echoes a real-life luxury fraud scandal from South Korea.

The series stars Shin Hye-sun as a master con artist building a seemingly elite handbag label, and has become a global hit and is currently ranked No. 1 in several other South-east Asian countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

In the show, protagonist Sarah Kim constructs the illusion of a European luxury brand called Boudoir, marketing handbags as exclusive items for VIP clients and European royalty.

The plot later reveals that the bags are cheaply produced in Korea using low-cost materials while false documentation is used to support claims that they were crafted in Europe.

Netflix has described the series as fictional, but the storyline has revived interest in a real South Korean case widely known as the “Vincent & Co” scandal from the mid-2000s.

The case involved a watch brand that claimed a century-long Swiss heritage and an elite clientele that supposedly included members of the British royal family.

The brand gained credibility after distributing watches as promotional gifts to celebrities before opening a showroom in Seoul’s upscale Cheongdam-dong district.

The launch event drew major stars of the era including actor Lee Jung-jae and actress Choi Ji-woo, along with fashion editors and stylists.

Individual watches reportedly sold for as much as 100 million won (about RM320,000), with sales and distributorship fees eventually totalling more than 2 billion won, according to police reports.

Investigations later revealed the watches were assembled in Korea using imported parts from Hong Kong and China.

Authorities also found the operators had transported the watches to Switzerland before reimporting them to obtain authentic import documents that reinforced their claims of European origin.

The mastermind behind the scheme was eventually sentenced to four years in prison after the court cited deliberate deception and the scale of the fraud.

The scandal’s similarities to the show’s storyline have resurfaced in public discussion as The Art of Sarah continues to trend globally on Netflix.