These brain-hacking services let you buy absolutely nothing but leave you feeling richer

It's late at night.

You're craving fried chicken. You open a food delivery website. Half original, half seasoned sounds good. Size? Small. Drinks? A Coke is a must. Cheeseballs? Why not.

Just add everything to the cart.

Enter the address and write a note: "Please don't knock." Payment method: card. Now finally, tap "order."

A "rabbit" delivery rider — the app's fast-delivery option — begins inching toward your home on the map.

Three minutes. One minute. Delivery complete.

Now open the door, only to find... nothing.

It's not a scam: No money has left your bank account. What's more, no restaurant even received the order and no delivery rider ever picked one up to bring to your doorstep. 

Instead, a congratulatory message pops up: "You just saved 2,120 calories." The receipt of the $22.38 purchase has also been saved.

Launched in late March, the website is one of a number of Korean virtual consumption platforms gaining attention online by letting users enjoy the experience of buying food without actually spending a single won.

Creators behind the fantasy

The person behind the fake food delivery website is Park Seo-hyun, who knows the temptation to order late-night delivery all too well.

"I used to order delivery all the time, like 10 times a week," the 27-year-old told the Korea JoongAng Daily. "I'm the type of person who gets addicted easily. One day I joked with my friends that I wished I could order food without it ever arriving. They told me to just make a website like that, so I did."

Designed to resemble popular food delivery apps such as Baedal Minjok and Coupang Eats, the site looks almost too convincing. Users can browse menus for pizza, malatang (spicy Chinese soup), takoyaki (Japanese fried octopus dumplings) and even bingsu (shaved ice dessert) before watching a virtual rider make the trip. Park added the last two after actual users requested them.

By mid-June, about 30,000 people a week were pretending to order food, according to Park, who plans to launch a mobile app version later this month with additional features, including minimum-order requirements to make the experience more convincing.

"I chose mala xiang guo (spicy stir-fry hot pot) and sushi for dinner tonight," wrote an X user with the username Positive Moon, alongside screenshots of a virtual order on the webstie. "I added 1,000 toppings and it still cost 0 won. I can order everything without worrying about money, and it arrived so fast."

If fake sushi isn't enough, another Korean website lets visitors shop around far more expensive items, though they might exist only in the imagination.

Its catalog includes whimsical products such as a 120,000 won ($77.60) "Moonlight mortar of the Moon rabbit" and "Tape that fixes a broken friendship," priced at 50,000 won.  Just like any real online marketplace, the site lets users browse products, add them to a shopping cart, check out and leave reviews.

The website's developer credits these imaginative products to Japanese manga and anime series "Doraemon" (1979-2005).

"Maybe it was because of Doraemon, which I watched as a child," the developer told Korea JoongAng Daily. "Whenever I faced difficulties, I often imagined how nice it would be if there were some gadget or solution that could magically fix them."

"Some people might dismiss it as silly or pointless, but imagining things doesn't cost anything or hurt anyone."

Contrary to the creator's expectations, users are enjoying the make-believe website and eagerly playing along.

 One user gave the imaginary mortar five stars.

"Best purchase of 2026! I kidnapped my professor and turned them into powder. Now I don't have to worry about my classes this semester," reads the review by a user named Hungry bear.

"People interacted with it as if it were a real online shopping mall and even shared their reactions on social media," the developer said. "I think it's because many people relate to the idea that the process of shopping itself is enjoyable, not just owning the item."

More than a dopamine hit 

As the websites gained attention both in Korea and overseas, similar ones soon followed.

Among them are FoodNeverComes, which works much like Park's website but offers a wider selection of cuisines, including Indian, Mexican and Brazilian, and which recently gained attention after being featured on U.S. television station WUSA9.

On its About page, the site describes itself as "built on the Korean 'dopamine site' trend," and explains the phenomenon "began as Gen Z consumers facing rising living costs and burnout looked for ways to enjoy shopping and takeout without the spending or buyer's remorse."

International media have also taken notice. British newspaper The Times and U.S. magazine Psychology Today have highlighted the platforms as examples of Korea's emerging "dopamine site" trend.

As the concept has gone viral globally, it has also spread overseas. Another overseas imitator, DopamineCart, modeled after Amazon, lets users fill a shopping cart and complete purchases without actually buying anything.

Yet experts say the appeal of such websites is more nuanced than simply providing a dopamine hit.

"There can be a dopamine response from engaging in an activity that closely resembles a real purchase, even if you know it's fake," said Kwak Keum-joo, professor emeritus of psychology at Seoul National University.

But Kwak emphasized that the websites provide a form of vicarious satisfaction while easing the regret of overspending in today's climate of constant consumer temptation and growing financial pressure.

"Today, we're constantly encouraged to consume, so the desire to buy things is always there," Prof. Kwak said. "But after making a purchase, people often regret it because they've spent too much money. These websites may offer a way to satisfy some of those consumer urges while reducing that sense of regret."

Recommendation algorithms further fuel the cycle, the professor said, by repeatedly serving users products similar to those they have already viewed.

"They stimulate the consumer impulses we already have. As a result, people end up buying similar products over and over, spending more money and feeling regret afterward."

Economic pressure has only made that trade-off more appealing, she added.

Korea's consumer inflation rose 3.2 percent on year in June, marking its fastest pace in two and a half years, according to data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics. Online shopping sales also came to 25 trillion won in May, moving up 10 percent from a year earlier, driven mainly by higher demand for foodstuffs and cosmetics.

Somewhere tonight, someone fighting the urge to spend will open a fake website, order fried chicken or add a Moonlight Mortar of the Moon Rabbit to their cart.

They may never receive what they "purchased," but they might still close the browser a little richer and with one less regret.

BY WOO JI-WON [[email protected]]