Man jailed for sending loan offer SMSes on behalf of unlicensed moneylenders

A man who failed to settle his $20,000 debt with unlicensed moneylenders agreed to send out loan advertisement SMSes on the latter's behalf to offset the amount.

On Nov 17, 2023, Sim Guo Liang sent out more than 173,000 of such messages on behalf of the moneylenders, identified in court documents as "J & Chang".

The prosecution said that Sim also worked with two other men - Felix Chan Zhi Hao and Samuel Tan Si Le - to send out nearly 144,000 more SMSes later that month.

Sim, 27, was sentenced to two months' jail and a fine of $90,000 on Feb 28 after he pleaded guilty to three counts of helping unlicensed moneylenders carry out their businesses.

He will spend an additional nine weeks behind bars should he fail to settle the fine.

Tan was earlier sentenced to three weeks' jail and fined $30,000 while the case involving Chan, 25, is pending.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Yap Jia Jun said that Sim had borrowed $3,000 from the moneylenders some time in 2023 and the amount, including interest, increased to $20,000 when he could not settle his debt.

J & Chang then told Sim that he could send out loan advertisements via mass SMSes on their behalf, and use the earnings to offset his debt.

Sim, who agreed to be part of deal, then bought a device called a "modem pool" that could hold 16 SIM cards.

He also downloaded a software called "SMS deliverer" onto a laptop and bought SIM cards from individuals on Telegram, or through agents and suppliers introduced to him by J & Chang.

After that, the moneylenders sent him Excel documents containing the loan advertisement messages. They also shared with him multiple phone numbers, the court heard.

DPP Yap said: "The accused would connect the laptop to the modem pool, plug in SIM cards...copy the messages and list of phone numbers, paste them into the SMS deliverer software, and 'blast out' the SMSes.

"Once the SMSes were 'blasted', the accused would record the 'sent messages' and send the recording to J & Chang as proof."

Court documents stated that in August 2023, Sim asked for Chan's help to sent out the mass SMSes and the latter agreed to assist him.

The DPP said that Chan also roped in Tan to commit the offences. Sim then paid each man up to $150 a day to send out the messages.

By himself, Sim sent out more than 173,000 messages when he was at home on Nov 17, 2023.

Eleven days later, Chan and Tan went to Sim's home and sent over more than 130,000 similar SMSes from 7am to noon, said the DPP.

Felix and Chan also went to Sim's home on Nov 29, 2023. The prosecutor said that Chan sent out more than 13,000 SMSes between 7am and 10.40am that day.

The court heard that the authorities raided Sim's home while Chan was sending out the messages.

The trio were later charged in court.

DPP Yap said that by sending out the loan advertisements via mass SMSes, Sim managed to reduce his debt to J & Chang to around $13,650.