Woman, 31, an ex-UOB staff, gives over 1,000 customers' data to scammers, gets 1 year & 24 weeks' jail

A 31-year-old woman, who is a Singapore permanent resident (PR) and former United Overseas Bank (UOB) employee, was sentenced to one year and 24 weeks' jail on Mar. 10 after she disclosed over 1,000 customers' details to a scammer.

According to The Straits Times, Cao Wenqing compiled the personal details of Chinese customers using the bank's customer database and provided them to an individual who claimed to be from a police officer in China.

She had done so as she was afraid of false "police investigations" against her.

Provided scammer with customers' contact details

Cao, who was working as a junior officer in the bank's mortgage department at the time, was contacted by two unknown individuals known as "Xiang Ying Dong" and "Captain Lu" in March 2021.

Lu, claiming to be a police officer from China, told her to identify Chinese nationals from UOB's database and share the information with him.

Cao, who used the database to sell mortgages and existing mortgage holders, compiled their identification numbers, bank balances and phone numbers into a spreadsheet.

She later took images of the document and sent them to Lu via WhatsApp, before deleting them.

She also conducted specific searches on customers at his request.

Arrested after realising she was duped, aware she violated bank policies

Cao was arrested on Apr. 22, 2021 after she realised that she had been deceived and filed a police report.

She had been aware that the database could only be accessed for work purposes and that she was required to keep customer information confidential.

The court heard that Cao had followed Lu's instructions as she was worried about the "investigations" against her and felt pressured to comply.

She was convicted in October 2025 of multiple offences, including 14 counts of misusing a computer system.

Top photo via Google Maps