A former UOB workers member who fell for a rip-off disguised as an investigation by Chinese language authorities has been convicted of leaking delicate data from greater than 1,000 buyer accounts to fraudsters, The Straits Instances reported.

Courtroom information confirmed that 30-year-old Chinese language nationwide Cao Wenqing, who was additionally a Singapore everlasting resident, confronted 27 expenses beneath the Pc Misuse Act and the Banking Act.

She labored as a junior officer in UOB’s mortgage division, the place she was authorised to entry the financial institution’s buyer database for mortgage gross sales and servicing work.

The database contained private particulars together with names, nationalities, addresses, identification numbers, cellphone numbers, account numbers and balances.

Whereas the information was meant for use solely for authentic banking functions, Cao misused her entry after being deceived by two people who claimed to be Chinese language legislation enforcement officers.

In line with The Straits Instances, the pair, identified by the aliases “Xiang Ying Dong” and “Captain Lu,” first contacted her in March 2021 and later communicated together with her via WhatsApp.

Though courtroom paperwork didn’t specify what was stated through the preliminary strategy, Cao believed their claims and agreed to assist with what she thought was a proper police investigation.

She started working searches within the UOB system for patrons with widespread Chinese language surnames and reviewed their profiles to determine Chinese language nationals.

The information she compiled, typically in batches of fifty to 100 clients, was recorded in an Excel spreadsheet, photographed and despatched to “Lu” via WhatsApp.

She additionally captured screenshots of sure buyer profiles at his request earlier than deleting the proof from her cellphone.

Investigators discovered that Cao had knowingly breached UOB’s inner insurance policies and Singapore’s confidentiality legal guidelines.

She admitted that, regardless of understanding the principles, she felt pressured to adjust to the supposed officers as a result of she feared being implicated in a pretend investigation or dropping her job.

Channel Information Asia reported that the courtroom thought of her schooling stage and coaching and located it unreasonable for her to not confirm the legitimacy of the calls with precise Chinese language authorities.

Cao later realised she had been deceived and lodged a police report on 22 April 2021. She was arrested that very same day.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ryan Lim informed the courtroom that whereas Cao acted out of worry, she was absolutely conscious that her conduct was illegal beneath Singapore legislation. Sentencing is scheduled for December.

Featured picture: Edited by Fintech Information Singapore, primarily based on photos by UOB and Freepik