Man bought stolen credit card details online for use on taxi rides, groceries

[The_King]

SINGAPORE — Two men who came across an online forum that sold illegally-obtained credit card details decided to buy the details to book taxi rides.

One of the men, Julian Sim Mong Teck, also decided use the stolen details to pay for groceries made through an NTUC mobile application.

Sim, a Singaporean, was jailed for seven months on Friday (13 August) after he pleaded guilty to two charges under the Computer Misuse Act over the usage of the fraudulently-obtained credit card details. Two charges of a similar nature were taken into consideration for his sentencing.

The case against his co-accused Ang Soon Loo, 45, has been fixed for a plead guilty mention on 10 September.

Sim, 35, and Ang came across the forum that sold credit card details for around $10 per card. They purchased the details and used them to book taxi rides on Comfort Transportation’s mobile application. The application could be linked to credit cards to make payment for when the trip was completed. The application was also linked to the server of the firm’s DBS bank to receive payments.

To avoid detection, the duo would create accounts on the application with fictitious identities. 

A management executive with Comfort Transportation lodged a police report on 17 April last year, stating that between 19 March and 8 April 2020, the company received 98 disputed taxi fare charges amounting to $1,577.20 that were incurred by six credit cards issued by a Brazilian bank, Banco Bradesco S.A.

Ang and Sim’s identities were established through CCTV footage retrieved from the taxis. The pair were arrested on 4 May last year.

Bought milk powder with stolen credit card details to resell

Sim also used the credit cards details to pay for his own groceries through NTUC Fairprice’s online mobile application, known as “Scan & Go”. A person shopping at NTUC supermarket could use the app to scan the barcodes for items, which would then be added to a virtual cart.

A person could then pay for the scanned items with a credit card. A successful payment would generate a receipt which could be scanned at a kiosk, allowing a customer to leave the supermarket with the purchased items.

In March last year, Ang told Sim about the application, and the latter decided to use the illegally-obtained credit card details to buy groceries using the app.

He created 14 accounts – linked to the credit card details – on the application using fictitious email addresses and phone numbers. He would then shop at NTUC supermarkets with his girlfriend, or other persons, and buy groceries.

He would also buy tins of milk powder to sell to others online for a profit.

Sim also roped in a friend he knew from National Service, Saifullizam Seman, 35, to help him in the scheme. He instructed Saifullizam to go to various supermarkets to take and send him photos of milk powder tins. He would then scan the barcodes of these items, buy them with the compromised credit cards, and get Saifullizam to deliver the milk powder to him. He paid Saifullizam $250 per trip.

From 7 to 30 April last year, over nine days and 84 transactions, Sim purchased items amounting to $19,206.40 with Saifullizam’s help, using the “Scan & Go” application and stolen credit card details of at least 31 different credit cards.

Sim estimated that he paid Saifullizam $2,500 in total while he had earned approximately $10,000 from reselling milk powder. According to Sim, he gambled $10,000 of his profit away online.

NTUC made police report

NTUC Fairprice Co-Operative Limited Singapore’s Head of offline-to-online grocery business department, Choong Woon Hun lodged a police report on 2 May due to the multiple disputed credit card transactions incurred by credit cards issued by foreign banks. 

NTUC had detected 319 disputed transactions between March and April and subsequently had to issue chargebacks on these transactions, resulting in a loss of $49,269.51.

Saifullizam's case is fixed for a further mention on 27 August.

Sim has since made full restitution. 

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kenneth Kee sought at least six months' jail for the offences, citing general deterrence as the "primary sentencing consideration to connote the signal that the misuse of credit card details will not be condoned". 

DPP Kee described the offences as "relatively sophisticated in nature" due to the steps he took to mask his identity. 

District Judge Kamala Ponnampalam noted that the scheme was a "relatively elaborate operation" given that Sim had also used fake identities for his accounts.