SIM card fraud lands retailer in jail

Mobile store proprietor Tan Chinn has been jailed for six months after being convicted of fraudulently registering pre-paid SIM cards.

The offenses were discovered after police were investigating cases of unlicensed money lending – and discovered a disproportionate number of the SIM cards being used traced back to a store called Tan Mobile, which Tan had been running since 2006.

According to court reports, Tan committed the SIM card fraud between April 2013 and February 2014. He pleaded guilty to seven of 20 charges brought under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act.

Tan committed the offences by using pre-paid SIM registration machines from Singapore mobile phone companies Singtel, StarHub and M1. Scanning the identity card number or passport of a customer, he would link the customer rto SIM card numbers which were not theirs, selling the cards to people who did not have documentation or who requested anonymity.

As well as aiding the criminal practices of the SIM card buyers, Tan would receive financial reward from the telcos for meeting sales quotas.

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