When PayWave and NetsFlash first came out, people started using it because it was convenient.
After all, you don’t have to hand over cash and grab the change or punch in your PIN number while surreptitiously (read: secretly, kind of) looking around you for any curious onlookers.
Just tap and go, just like taking the bus.
Turns out, it might also be safer.
NTUC FairPrice Cashier Jailed After Writing Down Customers’ Credit Card Details
On 21 Jul 2020, a former NTUC Fairprice cashier, Kas Qiu Caiying, was sentenced to eight months in jail.
Her crime?
For copying down credit card details and using them to spend over $41,330 worth of EZ-Link card top-ups.
She had worked as a cashier at NTUC FairPrice at Block 570B Woodlands Avenue 1 from Jan to Aug 2018.
From Jul 2018, she started copying down the credit and debit card details of customers who had handed them over for payment.
She wrote them on a plastic bag, which was then transferred to a notebook after she gets off work.
The Second Part Of The Plan
Midway through her employment with NTUC, she took up a job with Selarang Halfway House.
Selarang Halfway House is the first government-run facility which provides structured aftercare support to selected ex-convicts trying to reintegrate into society.
Basically, they try to help ex-convicts get back and become productive members of the society instead of going back into committing crimes.
When she was working at the halfway house, she stole a resident’s identity by taking her NRIC and name from the system and set up an EZ-Link mobile application user account under the halfway house’s name.
Then, using the stolen credit and debit card details, she made various top-ups, ranging from $10 to $100, to the few EZ-Link cards she owned.
She then brought them to various MRT stations for cash refunds and put the money into her bank account.
In total, she made 1,011 transactions worth $41,330.
Police Report Made, Woman Arrested
OCBC, after catching wind of the unauthorised transactions after various reports, lodged a police report.
Qiu was arrested after and she had made partial repayment.
She paid $9,100 and the remaining balance of $30,500 in her bank account was used for the restitution as well with her consent.