Two people charged over alleged illegal registration of more than 470 prepaid SIM cards
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SINGAPORE – Two former owners of different telecommunications firms who are allegedly linked to the fraudulent registration of more than 470 prepaid SIM cards were charged in court on Wednesday.
Tan Kong Chieh, 49, and Serene Lim Poh Tin, 54, allegedly misused the particulars of customers to illegally register the prepaid SIM cards multiple times.
“In both cases, the duo were believed to have exploited the terminal devices to pre-register additional prepaid SIM cards using the customers’ personal information when the customers handed over their identification documents for the registration of (their own SIM cards),” said a police spokesman.
“(We)... will spare no effort to clamp down on those who exploit and misuse other persons’ personal information to fraudulently register prepaid SIM cards, as they may be indirectly facilitating illegal activities such as unlicensed moneylending, scams and vices, among other illicit activities.”
Court documents do not say if the two cases are linked.
Tan, who used to own Nextel Telecommunications and was a director at Nextel Communications, faces four charges under the Computer Misuse Act, and one count of illegally obtaining the personal information of others.
Court documents show that between June 28 and Dec 31, 2020, he allegedly registered multiple individuals as owners of prepaid SIM cards without telco Singtel’s authorisation.
Tan is accused of committing similar offences in 2021 and 2022. He is also said to have retained the data of 172 people on Jan 16, 2022.
Lim, who used to own CS Connection, faces four charges under the Computer Misuse Act and two charges of illegally obtaining the personal information of others.
Among other offences, Lim allegedly caused unauthorised modifications to the contents of a computer system for the registration of prepaid SIM cards belonging to telco M1 between Aug 1 and Sept 9, 2021.
Multiple prepaid SIM cards were then allegedly registered and activated using the personal data of at least 50 people without their consent.
Their cases have been adjourned to May.
For each charge under the Computer Misuse Act, a first-time offender can be jailed for up to three years and fined up to $10,000.
A repeat offender can be jailed for up to five years and fined up to $20,000 for each charge.
For each charge of illegally obtaining the personal information of others, an offender can be jailed for up to three years and fined up to $10,000.
