Ex-Singtel worker jailed for hacking into girlfriend's social media, accessing confidential telco records of man she texted

SINGAPORE — While dating his then-girlfriend, Yap Wee Chian used his position as an employee of telecommunications firm Singtel to access confidential details of a telco client with whom the girlfriend had been exchanging text messages on the phone.

When she eventually broke up with him over his insecurities, he logged into her Facebook and Instagram accounts to check who she was talking to on these social media channels. He also changed a password and an email address linked to the accounts, a court heard on Thursday (May 12).

His obsessiveness then turned into hatred, leading him to go to her new residence and discard her shoes.

Yap, now aged 35, was jailed for eight weeks on Thursday for what he did to the victim, 32.

The Singaporean pleaded guilty to one charge each of unlawful stalking and unauthorised access to computer material, with another two similar charges taken into consideration for sentencing.

He will begin serving his sentence on June 13 and is on a S$10,000 bail in the meantime.

The court heard that he worked as a customer service officer with Singtel between 2011 and 2019, handling troubleshooting needs and mobile signal issues.

He was given access to the telco’s Niometrics system in 2018 to manage customer complaints and verify customers’ claims for mobile services. This allowed him to access records such as a customer's mobile data usage.

His supervisor told him not to use the system for personal purposes.

In April 2019, he began dating the victim. Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Thiagesh Sukumaran told the court that he was possessive of her and often suspected that she was speaking to other men.

Yap then noticed that she was receiving a number of WhatsApp messages from another man in October 2019.

He memorised the other man’s mobile phone number, then accessed the account information on the Niometrics system on 22 occasions from October to December 2019 to determine if the other man and the victim were using mobile applications at the same time, such as those for social media platforms.

THREW HER SHOES AWAY

Around this time, the victim moved in to live with Yap. She told him the personal identification code for her iPhone, and the couple also shared their email addresses and passwords for their email accounts with each other.

In January 2020, Yap bought a new iPhone 11 for the victim. He then took over her old mobile phone after transferring the data over to the new one.

Several months later, he accessed her Facebook account using her old phone and reset the password. When Facebook sent a notification to her email account, he logged in there, too.

She then broke up with him on Oct 2, 2020 because she felt that he was insecure and controlling.

When she began renting a room in Telok Blangah, he tried to meet her several times to mend their relationship but to no avail.

He then accessed her Instagram accounts and changed the linked email address to his own.

From then on, he accessed her social media accounts at least 139 times to check who she was engaging with on the accounts.

She filed a police report on Nov 7, 2020 after realising what he had done and fearing for her safety.

When it became clear to Yap by March last year that she no longer wanted to be with him, he went to her home and threw away three pairs of her shoes.

He now “hated the victim and felt that she had hurt him”, DPP Thiagesh told the court.

He also discarded two pairs of shoes that belonged to the victim’s landlord. He had yet to compensate his victims.

For unlawful stalking under the Protection from Harassment Act, he could have been jailed up to 12 months or fined up to S$5,000, or punished with both.

For unauthorised access to computer material under the Computer Misuse Act, he could have been fined up to S$5,000 or jailed up to two years, or both.