Secondhand laptop allows thief to steal 18,974 yuan

A man has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for stealing 18,974 yuan ($3,085) from two online payment accounts after lifting the victims' passwords from a secondhand laptop, a district court said Friday.

The defendant, surnamed Deng, bought the computer online last September and discovered it still contained the previous owner's data, according to a press release from Songjiang District People's Court.

The data included the user names and passwords to two online payment accounts that contained a total of 18,974 yuan, the court said. Deng changed the mobile phone numbers associated with the accounts and then transferred their balances to his own account.

The laptop's previous owner, surnamed Wang, and his girlfriend both received text messages informing them that someone had changed the mobile phone numbers associated with their accounts.

They called the bank and learned that their accounts had been emptied. They called the police, who caught Deng two months later.

The company that owned the third-party payment platform returned the money to Wang after confirming that it had been stolen, the court said. Deng later repaid the stolen money with the help of his family.

The court said it gave Deng a lenient sentence because he confessed and returned the money.

The court suggested that computer owners delete all of their personal information from their machines before selling or giving them away.