A former UOB staff member who fell for a scam disguised as an investigation by Chinese authorities has been convicted of leaking sensitive information from more than 1,000 customer accounts to fraudsters, The Straits Times reported.
Court records showed that 30-year-old Chinese national Cao Wenqing, who was also a Singapore permanent resident, faced 27 charges under the Computer Misuse Act and the Banking Act.
She worked as a junior officer in UOB’s mortgage department, where she was authorised to access the bank’s customer database for mortgage sales and servicing work.
The database contained personal details including names, nationalities, addresses, identification numbers, phone numbers, account numbers and balances.
While the data was meant to be used solely for legitimate banking purposes, Cao misused her access after being deceived by two individuals who claimed to be Chinese law enforcement officers.
According to The Straits Times, the pair, known by the aliases “Xiang Ying Dong” and “Captain Lu,” first contacted her in March 2021 and later communicated with her through WhatsApp.
Although court documents did not specify what was said during the initial approach, Cao believed their claims and agreed to help with what she thought was a formal police investigation.
She began running searches in the UOB system for customers with common Chinese surnames and reviewed their profiles to identify Chinese nationals.
The data she compiled, often in batches of 50 to 100 customers, was recorded in an Excel spreadsheet, photographed and sent to “Lu” through WhatsApp.
She also captured screenshots of certain customer profiles at his request before deleting the evidence from her phone.
Investigators found that Cao had knowingly breached UOB’s internal policies and Singapore’s confidentiality laws.
She admitted that, despite understanding the rules, she felt pressured to comply with the supposed officers because she feared being implicated in a fake investigation or losing her job.
Channel News Asia reported that the court considered her education level and training and found it unreasonable for her not to verify the legitimacy of the calls with actual Chinese authorities.
Cao later realised she had been deceived and lodged a police report on 22 April 2021. She was arrested that same day.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ryan Lim told the court that while Cao acted out of fear, she was fully aware that her conduct was unlawful under Singapore law. Sentencing is scheduled for December.
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on images by UOB and Freepik
