SINGAPORE: Two Malaysian businessman who conspired with an alleged Chinese cyber criminal to buy the personal data of more than 9,300 people, believed to be stolen from gambling websites, were sentenced to 14 weeks’ jail each on Wednesday (Oct 24).
Penang resident Seow Gim Shen, 42, and Selangor resident Kong Chien Hoi, 39, had pleaded guilty to one charge each of conspiring with Chinese national Sun Jiao to have the personal information of 9,369 unknown individuals supplied to them.
The prosecution had sought six months’ jail for each of the men, while defence lawyers asked for a fine of S$10,000 each.
In sentencing, District Judge Christopher Goh noted the amount of personal information involved, accepting that only about a third of these particulars were “in some way active”.
He noted also that the data was paid for, and that there had been further negotiations to obtain more data, although that fell through as Sun was arrested.
He viewed the reasons for obtaining the information – for online remote gambling – as an aggravating factor, saying he could not see this as being simply a business transaction.
He considered also the transnational nature of the offence, as Sun was living in Singapore when he provided the data to Seow and Kong, who were not in Singapore.
However, he said that this case was “less egregious” in the wider scheme of things than if it involved Singpass, NRIC or credit card details.
The information obtained included names and phone numbers of Thai nationals.
Seow and Kong were allowed to defer their jail terms while they consider lodging an appeal.
THE CASE
Seow was introduced to Sun, 42, by a Chinese national in 2019 at a casino in Cambodia.
He was told that Sun dealt in databases of personal information and could sell them to people involved in online gambling operations.
Seow then introduced Sun to his friend Kong, as he knew Kong had a client dealing in online gambling operations.
The two Malaysian men did not know that Sun was staying in Singapore, or what businesses he ran.
Sun is allegedly part of a global cybercrime syndicate based in Singapore, run by Chinese criminals who operated out of a rented bungalow in Mount Sinai, with alleged victims from countries like India and Korea.
Kong, Seow and Sun later shared a chat group titled “Malaysian Data” for Sun and Kong to negotiate the sale of the illegally obtained personal information.
After Kong asked to buy Thai nationals’ personal information, Sun said he had the information of over 1 million Thais.
Kong asked for a sample, intending to use the data for an online gambling operation he was assisting in.
Sun sent a file to Kong and Seow on Jul 24 over WhatsApp, containing the personal information of more than 9,000 people including their names and phone numbers.
The file was a sample extracted from a larger database and was part of negotiations for the sale of the full database.
Kong had an associate get the data tested. A detailed report showed that 34 per cent of the 2,000 numbers could be contacted. An SMS blast sent out to the 9,369 numbers showed that 32 per cent of the SMSes were successfully delivered.
Kong then sent the report results to Sun in the group chat and negotiated a price, with more data included. Kong said he also needed the personal information of people from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, and asked Sun to let him know how many phone numbers he could provide.
On Sep 7, Seow asked Sun if he had data of Vietnam nationals. Sun sent a file containing the personal information of 6,800 people including Vietnamese names, email addresses, mobile numbers and bank account numbers.
On Sep 13, Kong transferred 20,000 USD Tether (about S$26,200) to Sun to pay for the full database of over a million people.
However, the two Malaysians did not receive the data, as Sun had been arrested.
About 160 officers from the Criminal Investigation Department conducted simultaneous raids islandwide on Sep 9, arresting six men believed to be linked to the syndicate of “global malicious cyber operators”, the court heard.
Sun was arrested at a condominium along Bidadari Park Drive. He had a laptop containing computer programmes that could be used in cyber attacks.
Police forensic investigations uncovered the Malaysia data WhatsApp chat group, to which Kong and Seow belonged.
On Sep 21, the two Malaysians entered Singapore for the Grand Prix and were arrested two days later when attempting to leave the country.
Sun is remanded and his case is pending.
