Phone shop owner fined for registering, reselling prepaid SIM cards without customers' consent
SINGAPORE: A mobile phone shop owner was fined S$21,000 by the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) for using customers’ details to register and resell pre-paid SIM Cards without their consent.
The case of Neo Yong Xiang, sole proprietor of Yoshi Mobile, is the first under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) involving egregious misuse of personal data to activate and re-sell SIM cards for financial benefit, said the authorities on Thursday (Mar 10).
He will also be charged in court on Friday with abusing the computer systems holding the customers' personal data to commit cheating offences.
PDPC had earlier received complaints about property advertisements via mobile text messages to people who had registered their numbers with the Do Not Call registry, said PDPC and police in a joint news release.
During investigations, it was discovered that a significant number of messages were sent from SIM cards registered through Yoshi Mobile.
"As a retailer of telco SIM cards, Neo had access to customer data," said the authorities.
"He used customer data to register additional prepaid SIM cards his customers did not request for. He then sold them to anonymous buyers who intended to use them (to) send text messages."
The PDPC found that Neo was in breach of the PDPA.
The police also conducted parallel investigations into possible cheating related offences, as Neo was "suspected to have abused the computer systems holding the customers’ personal data in the commission of the offences".
With police investigations completed, Neo will be charged in court on Friday with two counts of cheating.
The offence of cheating under the Penal Code carries a jail term of up to three years, or a fine, or both.
For accessing a computer with intent to commit or facilitate commission of offence under the Computer Misuse Act, those found guilty can be jailed up to 10 years, fined up to $50,000, or both.
"The PDPC and the police take a serious view on the misuse of data and will not hesitate to take firm enforcement action," the release said.
