SINGAPORE: A man who committed credit card fraud to buy over S$65,000 (US$47,000) worth of tickets to Universal Studios Singapore (USS) was jailed for four years, four months and four weeks on Friday (Jan 3).
Nai Jin Khin, a 35-year-old Malaysian, pleaded guilty to 17 charges of cheating, with another 46 similar charges considered for sentencing.
His conviction comes after police last November highlighted an emerging trend of foreigners committing credit card fraud targeting local retailers.
Other cases have made their way through the courts, such as two Chinese men who were jailed in December for agreeing to fraudulently buy iPhones.
In Nai’s case, the court heard that in early 2022, his friend added him to a Telegram group for buying and selling cryptocurrency.
Nai was supposed to act as a middleman for an individual named “Da Sheng” who wanted to buy cryptocurrency, but the transaction did not go through.
In August 2024, Da Sheng contacted Nai and asked if he was interested in helping him buy USS tickets for his company.
Nai was unemployed and needed money for his children’s school fees and housing, so he agreed and was added to another Telegram group.
In September 2024, he started travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore to buy the tickets. During these trips, he would go to USS and inform the Telegram group when he was there.
Nai would then be given a 10-digit code to get in touch with an unknown individual through a phone app called VooV Meeting.
The contact would tell Nai how many USS tickets to buy, and send tokenised credit cards to the Apple Pay app on his phone.
Nai would buy the requested number of tickets and pay with Apple Pay. If the payment was declined, new tokenised credit cards would be sent to his Apple Pay.
After collecting the physical USS tickets, Nai would receive payment from Da Sheng for each trip to Singapore.
He made RM6,000 (US$1,300) from his involvement in the scheme.
The fraudulent purchases in the 17 proceeded charges took place in October 2024. They amounted to S$65,487 for nearly 800 USS tickets.
Nai suspected that the credit card details he received on Apple Pay were illicitly obtained, Deputy Public Prosecutor Lu Huiyi said.
She asked for a jail term of around four years and five months, arguing that the fraud was complex and coordinated, and entailed multiple layers of communication.
While Nai was not the mastermind of the scheme, he played an active role in coming to Singapore to buy the tickets, and was paid for doing so, she said.
Ms Lu also highlighted the international dimension of Nai’s offences as an aggravating factor.
Nai, who did not have a lawyer, choked up and appeared teary as he addressed the court through video link from his place of remand.
He said that he was remorseful and hoped his actions did not result in major repercussions.
He said that he had two children with his wife, who was now supporting them on her own. Her health was failing and Nai said he did not know how much longer she could “hang on”.
He asked the judge for a lighter sentence so that he could be reunited with his family.
District Judge Wong Peck noted that Nai faced many charges, and said that the sentence proposed by the prosecution was fair and proportionate.
The offence of cheating is punishable with up to 10 years in jail and a fine. Offenders with amalgamated charges can face up to double the punishment.
