SINGAPORE: A man had been jailed for a season on Thursday (Aug 4) for taking advantage of an automatic EZ-Link credit card top-up function to obtain S$109, 900 which he used to buy smokes.
Chua Yi Da, 27, pleaded guilty to 1 charge of unauthorised access to computer material.
His three accomplices were Whilst gary Yeo Jia Jun, 29, Darren Koh Wei Zhou, twenty six, and Cynthia Li Xinyi, 24. Yeo was earlier sentenced to one year in jail for his involvement, while the other cases are impending.
The court heard that in June 2019, the girls conspired to exploit the loophole in the EZ-Reload programme.
This particular programme automatically lead up an EZ-Link card by a pre-selected amount whenever the card was used to make a purchase that exceeded the amount stored in the card.
The four obtained 801 EZ-Link cards, linked them to EZ-Link accounts and opted in to the EZ-Reload programme, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Samuel Chew.
They then placed on DBS Bank designed for multiple replacement cards for debit cards which they owned, using the bank’s video teller devices. They obtained a total of 216 free e cards altogether.
Of such, Chua obtained 11 DBS debit cards in his own name, and also 12 cards linked to a joint account he set up with Koh for this purpose.
He also got another 22 credit cards by asking their relative for a charge card and trying to get replacement cards with no relative’s knowledge.
The group then bought cigarettes using EZ-Link cards on a number of occasions. Court documents failed to specify how much was stored on the credit cards, but the EZ-Reload program topped up anytime the amount fell below S$0.
The particular scheme was uncovered when a Cheers comfort store employee made a police record about several people making bulk purchases of cigarettes using EZ-Link cards.
An overall total of S$109, 990 was topped up on the 801 credit cards. This loss has been borne by EZ-Link as there was insufficient money in the debit cards designated as the way to obtain funds.
Chua and his accomplices by no means intended to pay for the particular automatic top-ups around the EZ-Link cards mentioned Mr Chew. Simply no restitution has been made in order to EZ-Link and the cigarettes obtained by the four could not be retrieved.
Chua’s protection counsel Tham Kok Leong asked for a lenient sentence, arguing that his client was “not a very intelligent man” and had been “led all the way” into undertaking the offences.
Responding to the defence’s claim that Chua was directed to devote the offences by a loan shark, in order to whom he gave the cigarettes, the prosecution said they were bare assertions not really supported by proof.
Mr Chew up also argued that Chua’s culpability as well as the harm he caused was high, and sought one year in jail so that Chua’s sentence would be upon par with Yeo’s.
The penalty for unauthorised entry to computer material is jail for up to 2 yrs, a fine of up to S$5, 000 or both.