SINGAPORE – A 17-year-old who allowed scammers to use his bank account to receive $85,220 stolen from OCBC Bank customers also recruited his friends to commit similar offences.

Cash totalling $186,693 taken from other scam victims was deposited into the bank accounts of two friends, while a third account was used for job scams.

The offender, who is now 19, was sentenced to 21 months’ probation on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to various offences, including dealing with the benefits of criminal conduct and giving false information to the authorities.

As part of his probation, he must remain indoors from 10pm to 6am every day and perform 100 hours of community service.

His parents were also bonded for $5,000 to ensure his good behaviour. He cannot be named as he was below 18 when he committed the offences.

The teenager was not a member of a group that helped overseas syndicates obtain bank accounts used to receive some $600,000 in ill-gotten gains from different ruses, including the phishing scams involving OCBC customers from December 2021 to January 2022.

He was, however, a friend of the group’s members and had helped them in their criminal activities.

Multiple members of the group linked to the scams targeting OCBC customers have been dealt with in court.

They include Leong Jun Xian, then 20, Brayden Cheng Ming Yan, then 19, and a 20-year-old man who cannot be named as he was below 18 years old when he started committing his offences.

On Dec 28, 2021, the teenager received a call from the man, asking if his bank accounts could be used to receive and withdraw $30,000.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Jason Chua said: “When (the teenager) heard about this request, he had doubted whether it would be ‘safe’ to receive the monies with his account, and (the man) told him that the monies transferred... would be safe.”

The teen then said that “he will only help... once and he did not want to get involved in any illegal activities”, said the DPP.

A total of $85,220 taken from the OCBC customers was later transferred into the teen’s bank account and withdrawn.

The identities of the people who made the transfers remain unknown. After the criminal proceeds were withdrawn, members of the group handed the monies to unknown people.

In an interview with the police in January 2022, the teen claimed that he had put about $51,090 in cash in a white plastic bag, which he purportedly placed behind a toilet bowl at Haig Road Hawker Centre.

Officers looked through closed-circuit television footage for about eight hours over one week, only to find out that he had lied.

He eventually admitted that he had given false information to protect the group.

In all, the group provided at least 16 bank accounts to overseas syndicates between December 2021 and February 2022, receiving nearly $600,000.

Between Dec 8, 2021, and Jan 19, 2022, the police received 768 reports from OCBC bank account holders who had fallen prey to phishing scams.

The total loss is estimated to be about $12.8 million. OCBC has since made full goodwill payouts to all of the account holders.

In an unrelated case in June 2021, the teenager got to know a man known only as “Bruno” on messaging platform Telegram.

Bruno asked him if he was willing to sell his automated teller machine (ATM) cards for $250 per bank account.

The teen accepted the offer and even sourced other bank accounts from his friends.

On or around July 10, 2021, he contacted a secondary school friend, stating that the latter would receive $150 monthly if he relinquished control of his bank account.

The friend agreed, and three other people were also roped in. All of them handed over their ATM cards and Internet banking passwords to Bruno.

Investigations revealed that benefits of criminal conduct totalling $186,693 were later transferred to two of the bank accounts.

A third account was used for job scams but the amount involved was not disclosed in court documents.