1/13/2021

Personal data - Who is leaking out personal data to scammers?

'A former Singtel Filipino assistant manager leaked the details of 6 Singtel customers to a loanshark because he was unable to settle his outstanding debts with him.

I cannot help but wonder if our Personal Data Protection laws are more for show or do they really serve useful purposes?' Simon Lim in TRE

The above is posted in an article by Simon Lim in TRE. And we all know that this is only the tip of the iceberg. For every data leaked and discovered or reported, thousands more could have been leaked and undetected or unreported. And for anyone caught leaking data, there could still be hundreds or more out there leaking such personal data to make money.

I am sure many of you must have been bombarded by scam messages inviting you to gamble online or to take a loan. And many of you must have been threatened by phone calls impersonating banks and demanding that you call back. The most numerous calls that I am receiving, and still receiving, despite blocking the numbers, are from callers claiming to be from DBS and saying in a demanding tone that she had been calling me many times to call back.

Where did these scammers get our personal data and phone numbers from? From the banks they claimed to be calling from, in my case DBS, or from some other banks or other sources? Apparently this is a very lucrative business, I don't mean scamming and trying to con people to send them money, but the selling of personal data. 

Why is this so prevalent and what is the authority doing about it? Who are accessible to our personal data, who are in charge of our personal data? Is the authority investigating and trying to catch the culprits? Who are the likely people to have access to people's personal data and likely to sell them for profit? What agencies or businesses have the most of such personal data, especially financial data to tell the crooks that you are in need of loans or have excess funds to gamble?

To many this is just a nuisance and treating the calls as nuisance calls. But there will be some that would fall prey to the scam and ended up losing a lot of their savings.  This is a scourge, like loan shark harassment and needs to be terminated.

What do you think? Where is the first place for the authority to start looking at?

18 comments:

SSO said...

With the Internet, there is actually no security in the personal data that you have provided to any bank, organisation, government agency or website. They will promise that your data are being used for certain purposes only. They will always say that your personal data are confidential and will be safe with them. They will make you to agree to their terms and conditions. They will point their finger at you when things go wrong and say that you have agreed to it.

Welcome to the Internet and Cyberspace Age!

Anonymous said...

"A former Singtel Filipino assistant manager leaked the details of 6 Singtel customers to a loanshark because he was unable to settle his outstanding debts with him."

"they hired an Indian FT contractor to do their outsourced IT and security and after many years discovered, he was playing punk at their manufacturing and overcharging many contracts. The day after the outsourced Indian FT left, the whole company was hacked and global locations all down."

"Imported COVID-19 cases . . . "

PAP 4G elites . . .

Anonymous said...

Importing foreign talents is like importing Covid19 virus.

Anonymous said...

For every 100 FTs imported, there will be a few turning out to be positive for 'virus', ie danger to the companies.

Keep importing FTs, they are very nice and friendly people, also nice and friendly to share whatever info they have with whoever they want.

Anonymous said...

Foreigners can do it because they will leave for home after their term ends, if they are not discovered. And they will do it because of money, which they are in need of. The temptation of money is more likely to entice them than for a local, who will always be here to face the music if discovered.

But, persona data leak is already happening since time immemorial. Like Virgo, I have lots of messages from money lenders, gambling sites, and fake Government entities. By the way, why do some people see it fit to tell everyone on Facebook what they are doing? Nothing else to do or helping the Telcos to make more money?

Anonymous said...

Basically, what everyone is talking about is the screwed up PAP government that cares only about their own high salary, high GDP growth and high annual bonuses, - nothing else but money, money and more money.

LKY's mantra: WHAT'S WRONG WITH COLLECTING MORE MONEY!

Anonymous said...

Has this got to do with allowing foreigners take control of our IT system?

Anonymous said...

Foreign crooks are not only controlling Singapore's It sector, but also Banking, MAS, Temasek, GIC, Town Councils, and the academics, journalists and the government leaders.

Anonymous said...

Wah! Like that.....very very very very Siong leh! So how next??? Anything can be done??????????

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

The imbeciles invited the foreign crooks here, gave them good jobs, paid them salaries they could not imagine and unable to get in their home countries, and they messed around with our personal information and could create havoc with our IT systems.

Say a big thank you to the imbeciles.

1984 George Orwell said...

The imbeciles opened legs and invited the foreign crooks to screw them good and proper.

Give them top jobs, lucrative pay, and also citizenship.

And handed over the control of so many key national and strategic organisations to run.

And to screw them from behind.

Having idiots disguised as top scholars and paper generals to be leaders is a sure ingredient for downfall.

1984 George Orwell said...

As of noon today (13 Jan), the Imbeciles has confirmed an additional 38 cases of COVID-19 infection in Singapore. This brings the total number of detected Covid-19 cases to 58,984.

Of the 38, 37 are happily imported by the Imbeciles and one is locally infected in the dormitory.

That means the Coronavirus is lurking inside the dormitories. And by extention, therefore, also in the community. However, they are not detected because there is simply no effort spent to detect them.

Anonymous said...

China's "open-door policy" is to be open to investments.

Singapore's "open-door policy" is to be open to foreigners taking over Singaporeans' jobs!

Anonymous said...

Sinkingland has been sold by the prodigal son, who happens to be a eunuch controlled by the greedy and vengeful Empress Dowager.

SSO said...

In my perception, rightly or wrongly, something must be seriously wrong with the Judiciary system.

Of late, there are too many incidents of injustice carried out by those who are responsible to ensure that Justice is done. Not only done but must be SEEN to have been done.

Sad to say, in many cases, though LEGALITY was done, Justice could be SEEN as having NOT DONE in public eyes.

Based on the evidence presented, the Captain's deliberate delay of 40 minutes had largely contributed to the cause of death. Why is he acquitted just because he is dying of 4th stage cancer? His illness can be used as a mitigating factor for reduces punishment but should not be use as an excuse to acquit his wrongdoing and absolve his responsibility. In fact, he is solely responsible for the death of Cpl Dave Lee.

SSO.

PS: Many Spiritual Masters believe that cancer is mainly due to unhappy spirit invading the living human body to take revenge.

SSO said...

Dave Lee's spirit cannot rest until his premature, untimely, unfortunate and unnecessary death has been properly and justly addressed.

Whoever is involved in this case has to act honestly, sincerely and with true conscience.

Any deviation from the truth will probably result in RETRIBUTION in time to come. In this lifetime. Not in the future.

So,don't play play.

Anonymous said...

Must write an article on behalf of Dave Lee, for Dave Lee, for the sake of Dave Lee. And hope he can rest in peace.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

This is a very painful story of an unnecessary death. Dave Lee needed not die.

The other sad story, the Captain died prematurely from cancer. Maybe the guilt and pain for the death of Dave Lee were too much for him to bear.

Let them rest in peace. Two unnecessary premature deaths.