SINGAPORE: A man was on Thursday (May 29) charged with spending over 250,000 KrisFlyer miles in other people’s accounts without their permission.
Rizaldy Primanta Putra, a 28-year-old Indonesian, was charged with four counts under the Computer Misuse Act.
Appearing through a video link from remand, he told a district court that he intended to claim trial to the charges. His bail has been set at S$15,000 (US$11,600).
Rizaldy is accused of using 4,672 miles in a KrisPay wallet to buy items valued at S$31.15 at Bugis Junction on Jun 8, 2024.
The KrisPay wallet was linked to a KrisFlyer account that belonged to another person, which Rizaldy was not authorised to use.
On Jun 21, 2024, he allegedly used 245,491 KrisFlyer miles from another account to buy S$1,636.61 worth of items at Changi Airport.
For each of these two instances, Rizaldy was also given a charge of logging into the accounts on the Kris+ app without authorisation.
According to the police, Rizaldy accessed KrisFlyer accounts that belonged to other people after illegally buying them online while he was overseas.
He flew to Singapore in June 2024, and allegedly committed the offences by buying pastries at Bugis Junction and a phone and phone cover at Changi Airport.
In October 2024, Singapore Airlines made a police report about suspected fraudulent transactions using KrisFlyer miles that were detected by local retailers.
Rizaldy was identified through ground enquiries and closed-circuit television footage. But he had already left Singapore in September 2024.
He was detained by Airport Police Division officers at Changi Airport when he returned to Singapore on Jan 11.
If found guilty of stealing other people’s KrisFlyer miles, thereby causing an unauthorised modification of the contents of a computer, he faces up to three years in jail, a fine of up to S$10,000 or both.
If convicted of logging into other people’s KrisFlyer accounts when he was not authorised to do so, he could be jailed for up to two years, fined up to S$5,000 or both.
