Probation report called for SG youth who cheated Microsoft of laptops worth S$193K

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SINGAPORE: He was simply 16, when a Singaporean cheated tech firm Microsoft Corporation into sending him 56 laptops worth round S$193,000 (RM599,105) by submitting false guarantee claims.

He had conspired with an American to run the scheme of shopping for the serial numbers of laptops with legitimate warranties from on-line boards and utilizing them to submit claims for defective units.

The youth, now 20, can’t be named underneath the Children and Young Persons Act, which bans the publication of the identities of younger offenders underneath 18.

He pleaded responsible on Tuesday (Feb 22) to at least one cost of conspiring to cheat Microsoft and three counts of buying property that have been advantages from prison conduct.

The courtroom heard that Microsoft ran a guaranty programme for its Surface laptops in 2017 for company clients based mostly within the United States.

The phrases of the programme state that clients may get an advance alternate of faulty laptops in the course of the guarantee interval. This means clients may obtain a substitute system earlier than returning their faulty merchandise to Microsoft.

To make such a declare, clients should present the serial quantity of a Surface laptop computer with a sound guarantee.

Sometime between August and October 2017, the accused found that the serial numbers of such laptops could possibly be bought from on-line boards for about US$25 (RM105) every.

He shared this data along with his American confederate, Justin David May, whom he met on-line in a personal discussion board.

The accused purchased the serial numbers of Microsoft Surface laptops and used them to submit guarantee claims for defective units.

He used a US-based handle given by May for Microsoft to ship the substitute units.

When the units arrived, May shipped them to the accused.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Samuel Chew stated: “As a result of the accused’s deception, Microsoft was dishonestly induced into delivering 56 units of Surface laptops valued at US$143,144 (RM599,129) in total.”

May, who stored some of the laptops, was charged within the US in January 2018 for a sequence of offences together with mail fraud towards Microsoft.

The Singapore Police had obtained data from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in May 2018 that the accused was suspected of fraud.

The accused offered the laptops on e-commerce platform Carousell for between S$1,700 (RM5,277) and S$2,500 (RM7,760) every.

He claimed to have transformed the proceeds to Bitcoin and that he misplaced every part when the worth of the cryptocurrency plummeted in 2018.

District Judge Kessler Soh postponed sentencing pending a probation report on March 31.

For conspiring to cheat, the accused may be jailed for as much as 10 years and fined.

The offence of buying property that have been advantages of prison conduct carries a most penalty of a S$500,000 (RM1.55mil) nice and a 10-year jail time period. – The Straits Times (Singapore)/Asia News Network



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