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Pilot’s SingPass hacked for visa applications
28 June 2012 3:45 PM | Updated 4:48 PM
(Screen capture from www.singpass.gov.sg)
A pilot has posted a complaint on Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Teo Chee Hean’s Facebook page saying that his SingPass was hacked and used to sponsor seven visa applications.
This is the second time such an incident has happened this month. Earlier this June, the SingPass account of an IT employee was allegedly hacked and also used to apply for seven visas.
The pilot, 42 year-old Raymond Lim, only found out his SingPass was hacked when he received a call from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority of Singapore (ICA) on 25 June asking for his assistance on two incomplete visa applications.
According to the report in Lianhe Wanbao, Mr Lim received the call from ICA at 7.30am that day telling him that two visa applications he was sponsoring, which were intended for Chinese nationals, had no photos of the applicants and could not be processed. He was asked by ICA to send over photos of the two applicants.
Mr Lim said he was shocked and quickly informed the person from the ICA that he had not sponsored any visa application. He later found the names and particulars of five more strangers listed under him when he logged on to the e-Visa Pass Status Enquiry section on the ICA website. The five consisted of males and females aged between 10 and 45-years old.
The two applications ICA had rung him about were also listed, and marked ‘incomplete’.
In the same report by Lianhe Wanbao, the man was interviewed saying, “This is outrageous!” he said. “I have not applied for anything or signed anything, yet five applications were approved. What is wrong with our country’s security system?”
He added that he was unsure whether the five people whose visas were approved have already entered Singapore and is worried that he might be implicated if they engage in any illegal activities.
Mr Lim believes that his account might have been hacked when he tried to apply for a visa for his mother-in-law. He said that he filled in an online form on the ICA website when his mother-in-law from China wanted to stay in Singapore for a short while. He said his mother-in-law’s application was rejected.
According to Mr Lim, the ICA told him to change his SingPass password immediately and said that they will be investigating all applications that have been filed using Mr Lim’s account.
