OCBC phishing scam: Man charged with helping to retain criminal proceeds

SINGAPORE: A man was charged on Tuesday (Jul 19) over his involvement in the OCBC phishing scams that targeted bank customers over the year-end festive period last year.

Mark Teo Sin Yan, 31, is accused of allowing an unknown person to use a UOB bank account under the name “Royals Beaute” to transfer and withdraw criminal proceeds between November and December 2021.

He was given one charge of assisting another person to retain the benefits of criminal conduct, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years’ jail, a fine of up to S$500,000 or both.

Teo was previously charged with other offences including criminal intimidation, cheating, giving a police officer false information and Road Traffic Act violations.

He will return to court for a pre-trial conference later this week.

The police earlier said that a scam victim made a police report on Dec 26, 2021, after discovering more than S$100,000 in unauthorised transactions.

Preliminary investigations revealed that more than S$18,000 of the victim’s money was transferred to a UOB corporate bank account.

Teo allegedly used his CorpPass credentials to open the corporate account for a locally incorporated company in November 2021, police said.

He is then suspected of relinquishing the bank account to an unknown person for monetary benefits.

More than S$4 million passed through the bank account in several high-value transactions from Dec 20 to Dec 27, 2021.

At least 14 people have now been arrested in relation to the OCBC phishing scams.

Earlier this month, a 21-year-old man became the first to be dealt with by the court among those accused of involvement in the scams.

Leong Jun Xian was sentenced to at least a year of reformative training for providing money laundering services to suspected overseas syndicates.

A total of S$13.7 million was lost in the OCBC phishing scams, according to the bank in January. It added then that “goodwill payouts” were being made to reimburse affected customers in full.