Unable to pay back a loanshark, Tay Kun Hong turned to identity theft to settle his troubles. And as a customer service officer with telco M1, he was more than capable of mining all the personal information he needed.
The 33-year-old started mining the database of M1 in March last year and sold them for $5 per subscriber to the ah long, Channel NewsAsia reports. He asked a friend at Singtel to do the same, and got paid $10 for each name, which he split evenly with his friend. Since Tay was unable to pay his debts, he offered his services in being a personal information provider for a licensed moneylender — and the moneylender agreed.
Was that enough for him? Hell, no. By Aug 2015, Tay had expanded his network to two more moneylenders to get more money for himself. He also accepted illegal jobs from loansharks, harassing debtors for them by splashing black paint and vandalising their walls. He also opened a bank account for a loanshark.
For all his crimes, he’s been sentenced to 17 months in jail, three strokes of the cane and fined $90,000. In court on Wedneday, he pleaded a lighter sentence, and explained that he did what he did so he could provide for his elderly parents and young daughter. He also pointed out that none of the crimes would have been brought to light if he hadn’t surrendered himself.
