3 arrested at handphone shops over fraudulent registration of postpaid SIM cards for potential criminal use
A photograph supplied by the Singapore Police Force in relation to raids carried out at eight hand phone shops across Singapore on March 30 and 31, 2023.
SINGAPORE — Three handphone shop personnel have been arrested for their suspected involvement in fraudulently registering postpaid SIM cards using the particulars of other customers. Another 11 people are assisting police in their investigation.
The pre-registered postpaid SIM cards were then sold to customers who wished to conceal their identities, the police said in a statement on Thursday (April 6).
"Criminals can exploit such fraudulently registered postpaid SIM cards as an anonymous channel of communications for unlicensed moneylending, scams, and vice, among other illicit activities," the police said.
The 11 men and three women were rounded up after their Commercial Affairs Department ran a 24-hour operation on March 30 and 31 targeting eight handphone shops at Whampoa, Toa Payoh, Woodlands, Tuas and Pioneer Road.
Of the 14 people, the police said three men aged between 24 and 31 were arrested for their suspected involvement in fraudulently registering postpaid SIM cards.
The remaining eight men and three women, aged between 28 and 56, are assisting in investigations, said the police.
TODAY understands that the 14 people either work as handphone shop retailers, or are employees of such shops.
Preliminary investigations by the police revealed that the handphone shop retailers had allegedly accessed registration information for postpaid SIM cards stored within their respective computer systems.
They would then allegedly use this information to pre-register SIM cards, and then sell the cards to customers who want to conceal their identities.
“Scam syndicates have also been found to perpetrate their criminal activities using such postpaid SIM cards to contact victims and to communicate amongst themselves, so as to evade possible detection,” the police said.
Investigations are ongoing.
The police also said that they take a serious stance over any person who may be involved in scams and will continue to clamp down on errant hand phone shop retailers who may be indirectly facilitating illegal activities.
Those involved in such illegal activities, it warned, will be dealt with in accordance with the law.
Anyone found guilty of fraudulently registering postpaid SIM cards can be jailed for up to three years, fined up to S$10,000, or both.
