6 weeks’ jail for ex-Miss Universe Singapore contestant who used friends’ card details to shop online

SINGAPORE - A former Miss Universe Singapore contestant who memorised her friends' debit card details and used these to spend $2,000 online was on Thursday (Feb 11) sentenced to six weeks' jail. Ashley Rita Wong Kai Lin, 27, had pleaded guilty in December last year to four counts of accessing materials on a computer without authority. The charges involved about $1,000 in total. During sentencing, the court also considered 27 other similar charges involving the remaining amount. The Singaporean, who was a Miss Universe Singapore contestant in 2017, had committed the offences in 2016 after a break-up with her boyfriend. One of her victims was a friend - Mr Andrew Lim, 28. When she noticed he had left his wallet on a table, she removed a debit card and memorised the details before returning it to the wallet. Between Sept 7 and Sept 24 in 2016, she used the information to make online purchases totalling more than $700 on platforms such as Lazada Singapore. After Mr Lim found out about the unauthorised transactions, he confronted Wong and she admitted to the crime. The court heard that Wong had earlier memorised the debit card details of another friend, 26-year-old Kimberly Qwee. On July 18, 2016, Wong used the information to pay $264.83 for accommodation at Hotel Clover. Her offences came to light when Ms Qwee could not make online payments with the debit card as her bank account had insufficient funds. Deputy Public Prosecutor Ivan Khoo said that there should have been money in the account as Ms Qwee's father had transferred monies to her before she attempted to make the transactions. When she checked her account, she spotted the Hotel Clover charge. Ms Qwee initially suspected that her former boyfriend was responsible and confided in Wong, but later discovered that it was her friend who did it. More on this topic   Related Story 20 weeks' jail for SAF captain who used credit card details of others to buy e-vouchers online   Related Story Woman arrested for allegedly spending more than $3,400 using victim's missing credit card When confronted, Wong admitted that she was responsible. Ms Qwee later alerted her bank, which refunded the full sum. The bank also managed to recover the sum from Hotel Clover through a charge-back process. Wong has since made full restitution to the hotel. For each charge under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act, a first-time offender can be jailed for up to two years and fined up to $5,000. A repeat offender can be jailed for up to three years and fined up to $10,000. More on this topic   Related Story Jail for undergrad who bought stolen credit card details to make fraudulent online purchases   Related Story Courts & Crime: Read more stories

3 men charged with crimes related to obtaining personal details of Singtel, Starhub customers

SINGAPORE - Three Singaporean men accused of committing crimes related to obtaining personal details of Singtel and StarHub customers appeared before a district court on Wednesday (Dec 16). Two of them, Foo Cheek Ann Kelvin, 32, and Zhang Jiazheng, 38, are said to have used computers at their workplaces to illicitly access the subscriber databases of Singtel and StarHub respectively. The third man, Lim Zong Xian Philbert, 33, faces three charges of bribing another man, Lee Cheng Yan, 37, with a total of $1,000 to get customers' details from the telcos in 2017. Foo faces 15 charges under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act including allegedly getting information related to the address of Lee's ex-girlfriend in 2014. He faces an additional charge of allegedly accepting $180 from Lee in 2016 in return for retrieving confidential details of Singtel customers. Zhang faces nine counts of allegedly using a computer at his work place to get information relating to various StarHub subscribers' details between 2015 and 2017. Lee was charged in 2018 for various offences and his case is pending. Lim, Zhang, and Foo are scheduled to be in court next on Jan 13 next year. Those convicted of using a computer to secure access to data without authority can be jailed for up to two years, fined up to $5,000 or both. Repeat offenders can be jailed for up to three years, fined up to $10,000 or both. For each offence of corruption, offenders can be jailed up to five years, or fined up to $100,000, or both. More on this topic   Related Story 3 men charged over bribes to obtain competitor's customer information and business   Related Story Courts & Crime: Read more stories