SAF regular jailed after using Dark Web to buy credit card details for Fave vouchers

A Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) captain was sentenced to 20 weeks' jail on Monday after buying credit card details off the Dark Web to purchase vouchers on online application Fave.

Yang Jiafeng, 32, pleaded guilty to three charges under the Computer Misuse Act. Another charge was taken into consideration.

Yang, a regular in the SAF and a captain in the SAF Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance Training Centre, got to know someone identified as "Mr Tree" through an online forum on the Dark Web.

He corresponded with Mr Tree through the e-mail service provider as he wanted to purchase multiple third-party credit card credentials, and he paid with bitcoins, Deputy Public Prosecutor Cheng Yuxi said.

He then created three accounts on Fave and linked the credit card details he bought to these accounts.

Between February and March 2018, Yang bought more than 80 e-vouchers worth more than $10,600 and spent more than $4,000 worth of credits at merchants such as Tung Lok Seafood and Famous Amos.

DPP Cheng said he then refunded these vouchers in order to obtain online credits from Fave so he could buy more items with these credits.

In May 2018, a fraud analyst with Maybank lodged a police report stating that the credit cards of three Maybank customers had been misused. A fourth victim was not a Maybank customer.

During the investigations, Yang claimed he had been cheated by Mr Tree as he thought he had merely purchased vouchers at lower rates and did not know they came from illegal sources.

But a laptop that was seized from Yang contained encrypted notepad files with the credit card details of the four victims, and Yang eventually admitted to the offences.

The New Paper understands that Yang has been suspended by the SAF.

This article was first published in The New Paper. Permission required for reproduction.