Sessions court judge Suhaila Haron imposed a fine of RM10,000, or four months in prison in default, for each charge against Chong Yin Hong, 42, and Chong Li Shian, 39, after they changed their plea to guilty at today’s mention.

Both women settled the fines.

According to the charges read jointly, Yin Hong and Li Shian were accused of acting in concert to commit unauthorised access and fraudulent payments using counterfeit funds at several malls in the capital between June 4 and June 11.

They were charged under Section 4(1)(a) of the Computer Crimes Act 1997, which carries a maximum penalty of a RM150,000 fine, 10 years’ imprisonment, or both.

The facts of the case stated that on June 10, a manager with Maybank’s fraud investigation division received multiple reports from customers of suspicious transactions involving people using NFC payments linked to foreign credit cards.

The bank conducted an investigation and found that both accused made payments by tapping their mobile phones on Maybank terminals using the authorisation code “VIP111”, causing the payment terminals to malfunction.

The investigation further revealed that Yin Hong’s phone contained multiple apps used by both accused to execute the fraudulent payments.

CCTV footage also confirmed that the women made purchases at a number of the malls in question, and the seized items matched those listed on the transaction receipts.