A 16-year-old Singaporean teen (who is now in his 20) has committed an offence to cheat one of the world’s largest tech companies, Microsoft, into sending him 56 laptops worth approximately SGD193,000, which equals to about RM600,000 if converted to MYR, by submitting false warranty claims to Microsoft.
The youth first discovered in 2017 that he was able to purchase laptops’ serial numbers from online forums at the price of USD25 (RM104.65) each. He then told his compliance, Justin David May, an American whom he met through an online forum, about such information and has since been conspired to run this scheme of buying a massive amount of laptops’ serial numbers with valid warranties to submit faulty devices claims.
In the same year, Microsoft in the United States ran a warranty programme for its Surface laptops for corporate customers. The terms of the programme offer customers to get an advance exchange of defective goods during their warranty period. Knowing that customers could receive a replacement device upon returning their defective laptops to Microsoft, the Singaporean teen and his American compliance submitted the warranty claims for faulty devices to Microsoft using the serial numbers they purchased from the online forums.
Having a partner in crime from America, the Singaporean teen informed Microsoft to deliver the replacement devices to a US-based address given by May. When the devices delivered by Microsoft arrived at the said location, May shipped them over to Singapore, allowing the youth to collect them and sell these laptops on an eCommerce platform named Carousell for SGD1700 to SGD2500 per unit.
As a result of the Singaporean youth’s deception, Microsoft was induced into delivering 56 units of Surface laptops and suffered a total loss of USD143,144 (RM599200).
In 2018, his compliance was charged in the US for his dishonesty, which includes several other offences, such as mail fraud against Microsoft. In the same year, the Singapore Police received the information from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and has suspected the teen of doing fraud.
On the 22nd of February 2022, the Singaporean teen has finally pleaded guilty to one of the charges in conspiring to cheat Microsoft. When the court asked the whereabouts of the money, the accused claimed that he converted all the profits to Bitcoin and had lost everything when the cryptocurrency plummeted in 2018.
However, the cryptocurrency market crash in 2018 is nothing compared to the rise afterwards. Should the teen lie about his cryptocurrency status, he would be one of the richest youths in Singapore today.
Currently, the Singaporean teen could be faced up to 10 years jailed and fined, reported by The Straits Time.
What about you? What do you think? Should he be jailed for the misconduct he did of deceiving Microsoft, or should Microsoft admit that there’s a flaw in their Surface laptops programme that allows the teen to take advantage of it? Comment to let us know.
Lee Jasen is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
Register at headliner.newswav.com to become one of our content writers now!
Newswav is solely an aggregation platform and hosts the content. The views expressed and content above including media (pictures, videos, etc) were provided by the author. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.