SINGAPORE: A man engaged the services of an alleged accomplice to illegally obtain the personal information of others, as he wanted to use such data in an unlawful online gambling operation.
Malaysian Kong Chien Hoi, 39, then received from Chinese national Sun Jiao a file that contained the personal information of 9,369 unknown people.
Sun, 42, was allegedly linked to a global syndicate that conducted malicious cyber activities.
Kong’s Malaysian accomplice, Seow Gim Shen, 42, also received the file. Seow later asked Sun if he had the personal data of people in Vietnam.
The court heard that Sun then sent the two Malaysians another file with the personal data of 6,800 unknown people.
Deputy public prosecutors Hon Yi, Cheah Wenjie and Shaun Lim stated in court documents: “Sun Jiao informed investigators that the personal information data was obtained through... other gambling websites to obtain their list of users and their personal information.”
On Oct 24, Kong and Seow were each sentenced to 14 weeks’ jail.
Each man had pleaded guilty to one count of being part of a conspiracy to illegally obtain other people’s personal information.
The DPPs added: “Both Kong and Seow had reason to believe that the... personal information was obtained without the consent of the unknown persons, and they in fact believed that Sun Jiao could have stolen the personal information data.”
Meanwhile, Sun was one of six men who were charged in court in September, and their cases are still pending.
The Straits Times reported that Sun was allegedly part of the group that had planned to target websites and exploit their vulnerabilities.
The prosecutors said that some time in 2019, Seow befriended a Chinese national known only as Andy while visiting a casino in Cambodia.
Andy later introduced Seow to Sun, saying the latter dealt in databases containing other people’s personal information.
Seow then introduced Sun to Kong, who was then assisting in the operation of an online gambling service that was accessible in multiple countries, including Singapore.
But Seow’s lawyer, Sunil Sudheesan, told the court that Kong was actually working for a client who operated the online gambling service and was not directly assisting the website.
On or before Aug 24, 2023, Seow created a “Malaysian data” group chat on WhatsApp, which also included Kong and Sun.
According to court documents, the group chat was formed for Sun to sell strangers’ personal information that had been stolen from various websites.
“Sun Jiao understood that Kong and Seow were interested buyers for such illegally obtained personal information,” said the DPPs.
Kong was in Malaysia on July 24 when he spoke on the phone with Sun, asking to buy personal information of Thai nationals.
Sun replied that he had the personal information of over a million Thai nationals, and Kong then asked him for a sample.
The prosecutors said that later that day, Sun used WhatsApp to send Kong and Seow a file with the data – including the names and phone numbers – of 9,369 people.
Seow did not open the file. However, Kong forwarded it to a female associate, known only as Nida, and asked her to cold-call the numbers found inside.
On Aug 17, she sent Kong a detailed report, stating that her team had called 2,000 of the numbers, and sent out SMSes to all 9,369. Details about the messages were not disclosed in court documents.
Of the numbers called, 34 per cent were reachable.
As for the numbers in what the DPPs described as an “SMS blast”, 32 per cent were successfully delivered.
On Sept 7, Seow asked Sun if he had the personal information of people in Vietnam and Sun sent the two Malaysians another file.
But two days later, officers from the Criminal Investigation Department conducted simultaneous raids at multiple locations islandwide and six people, including Sun, were arrested.
Officers seized from him five laptops, six mobile phones, $24,000 in cash and cryptocurrency worth about US$850,000 (S$1.1 million).
The “Malaysian data” group chat was uncovered during investigations.
On Sept 21, Kong and Seow came to Singapore for the F1 Singapore Grand Prix and were arrested two days later as they were about to leave the country. - The Straits Times/ANN
