Hair salon employee jailed for stealing over $1,000 in customers’ CDC vouchers while helping to set up payment apps
A customer service consultant at a hair treatment centre was jailed after secretly forwarding customers’ CDC voucher redemption links to her own phone while helping them set up digital payment methods — she ended up spending more than $1,000 worth of the stolen vouchers.
The consultant, 31-year-old Phang Koh Xing, pleaded guilty on July 22 to one count of criminal breach of trust and one count of accessing a computer system with the intent of committing theft under the Computer Misuse Act.
Two similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
She was sentenced to six weeks’ jail and ordered to pay two victims a total of $967 in compensation. If she fails to pay, she will serve an additional nine days’ jail.
Forwarded redemption links to herself
According to Lianhe Zaobao, Phang was working as a customer service consultant at Yun Nam Hair Care’s AMK Hub outlet at the time of the offences in August 2025. Her duties included helping customers set up payment methods on their mobile phones.
On Aug 1, 2025, a 60-year-old woman visited the centre for a hair treatment. After deciding on a treatment package, she handed her phone to Phang to help set up an instalment payment service on Shopee.
Phang, however, proceeded to access the woman’s text messages, located her CDC voucher redemption link — part of a government-funded scheme to help Singaporeans manage daily expenses — and forwarded it to her own mobile number.
Over the next three days, Phang used $575 worth of the victim’s CDC vouchers in nine transactions at locations including a supermarket, an optical shop, and several eateries.
The victim reported the matter to the police on Aug 4, 2025, after discovering that her vouchers had unexpectedly been used. Phang did not make any restitution to her.
Repeats process with another customer
Just days later, on Aug 9, 2025, Phang repeated the scheme with a 31-year-old customer, who completed a hair treatment and asked Phang to help set up payment through the Atome app.
However, she accessed the customer’s text messages, forwarded the redemption links to herself, and later used $592 worth of the vouchers.
The second victim lodged a police report on Sept 2, 2025, after which Phang voluntarily repaid her $200.
The prosecution sought a jail term of between six and eight weeks, arguing that Phang had exploited others’ trust in her and misused it for wrongful access to the victims’ CDC vouchers.
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