Cashier jailed for making illegal ez-link transactions of over $41,000
A part-time supermarket cashier copied the bank card details of 34 customers into a notebook and used the data to make 1,011 unauthorised ez-link top-up transactions totalling $41,330.
Kas Qiu Caiying, 30, travelled to a number of MRT stations to seek cash refunds from the more than 500 ez-link cards she had used to store the monies.
The Singaporean was sentenced yesterday to eight months' jail after pleading guilty to 11 charges under the Computer Misuse Act involving more than $28,000.
Twenty-four similar charges linked to the remaining amount were considered during sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ben Mathias Tan said Qiu was employed by the supermarket in Woodlands Avenue 1 between January and August 2018.
She also held a full-time job from April that year as an operations executive at government-run Selarang Halfway House, which provides aftercare support to selected ex-offenders. The Straits Times understands that she no longer works there.
Some time in August 2018, she obtained the name and NRIC number of a resident at the halfway house from a computer terminal and used the details to create an ez-link mobile application user account on her phone.
DPP Tan said: "The accused then keyed in the credit and debit card details that she had obtained into the ez-link account in order to top up various ez-link cards with amounts ranging from $10 to $100.
"The accused performed the top-ups by placing the said ez-link cards against (her mobile phone) which had a 'near field communication' function."
Qiu later obtained cash refunds from the cards.
A bank operations clerk alerted the police on Dec 11, 2018, that the bank had received multiple reports from its credit and debit card holders on unauthorised transactions made to an ez-link application.
Officers later arrested Qiu, who made partial restitution of $9,132 earlier this year. She has since consented for more than $30,000 in her bank account to be used for restitution.
For each charge under the Act, a first-time offender can be jailed for up to two years and fined up to $5,000.
Repeat offenders can be jailed for up to three years and fined up to $10,000.
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