I’m sure all of us have received our fair share of unwanted SMS messages from loansharks and moneylenders.
You know, the ones that start with something like this:
“We are the licensed money lender in Singapore and amongst the pioneer loan service providers in Singapore. Are you having financial problems?”
OR
“We can help you … Are you looking for some cash? We are ready to help you with various types of loan with affordable interest rates.”
Sounds familiar?
Well, have you ever wondered how any of these people actually get your number and contact details?
It seems like the police might have discovered one possible reason.
Tech Support Employee Jailed For Selling Singtel Customer Details
A technical support employee for a Malaysian subsidiary of Singtel who retrieved unauthorised billing information of Singtel customers and sold them to loan sharks was jailed on Wednesday, 26 Aug.
Adnan Ahmed Siddiqui, 31, will be serving jail time for two months and 14 weeks for his long list of computer crimes between July 2017 and July 2019.
So this guy, and guys like him, could be the reason that you’ve been receiving all those messages from loan sharks.
Adnan worked for Sudong Sdn Bhd, which is a subsidiary of Singtel that is located in Selangor, Malaysia. The call centre provides technical support to Singtel customers.
Adnan joined the company in February 2014, and part of his job scope included looking into billing disputes, thus giving him access to billing details of Singtel customers for the past seven years.
According to Deputy Public Prosecutor Selene Yap, Adnan could easily access the call logs of business account holders by keying in their billing account numbers into the system.
So how did he end up getting himself into this messy situation?
Introduced To The Scheme By His Colleague
Well, for money of course.
Adnan’s colleague, Amy, told him about a fast cash scheme that would let him make money easily. She instructed him to send an email to an address and tell the recipient that he worked for Singtel.
Adnan did so, and the person on the other end told him that he would be paid for providing copies of bills for specific account numbers.
It sounded like a pretty easy way to earn some extra cash, so Adnan agreed.
He started doing the ‘job’ and would receive around seven emails monthly to check on different account numbers. Upon completion, he was paid between RM 1,000 (S$327) and RM 1,200 (S$392) every month.
From July to October 2017, he made 400 unauthorised screenings of bill records containing the call logs of Singtel customers.
Worked Together With Another Colleague
Later on, Adnan was transferred to a different department in the same company.
His college, Mohamed Maher Muhaffel Mustasem, had heard about what Adnan was doing and wanted in as well.
Both of them started working together and continued to send copies of customers’ bills to the unknown person.
Adnan eventually resigned in July 2018, but he continued to assist Mohamed Maher with the crimes, and they performed a total of 273 unauthorised screenings of bill records between April 2019 and July 2019.
Arrested By CID Officers
However, they did not go undiscovered for long.
In November 2018, the police received information that a group of data sellers had sold statements of call logs to unlicensed moneylenders.
After conducting investigations, they found out that the data came from Singtel, and both Adnan and Mohamed Maher were identified as potential suspects.
Adnan was arrested at the airport by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers from the Bukit Aman headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. He was then handed over to Singapore CID officers.
After he was caught, Adnan pleaded guilty to eight counts under the Computer Misuse Act of unauthorised access to computer material, and another 18 counts were taken into consideration.
For each charge, he could have been jailed for up to three years, fined up to S$10,000, or both.
So Singtel users, if you keep receiving loanshark messages, it could be because of Adnan or his friends.
Read Also: How To Stop Getting Loanshark Messages The Official Way
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