Life of Guangzhou - Hong Kong Student Hacks Prizes in Online McDonald's Contest

A Hong Kong student has been convicted of fraud after hacking into a McDonald's website to claim all the prizes in on online competition, a news report said Wednesday. Computer engineering undergraduate Lee Tsz-ho, 22, changed the e-mail addresses of the winners so he could claim all five prizes in the competition, the Hong Kong Standard reported.

He was caught when the genuine winners checked with McDonald's to ask why they had not been sent their winners' e-mails, the newspaper said. The prizes were five mobile phones.

Lee committed the offence in November last year when McDonald's ran a competition in which people were asked to download videos onto the company's website.

He turned up at the McDonald's office in February with his father and presented redemption letters to collect the five phones. He later sold four of them for the equivalent of almost 900 US dollars.

At a court hearing Tuesday, Lee, who studies at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, admitted obtaining property by deception. He is to be sentenced in two weeks.

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