LOUD knocking at the front door interrupted her afternoon nap.
Bleary-eyed, she walked out of her bedroom and was shocked to be confronted by a group of plain-clothes police officers.
A piece of paper was thrust at her.
Miss Luo Z W, then 22 and an NUS undergraduate, was accused of posting a bomb hoax online.
She had become a suspect because the forum posting had been traced to her Internet account.
This led the police to her Jalan Bukit Merah four-room flat at about 4.30pm on 1 Aug, 2005.
Miss Luo and her mother live in the flat with her aunt, the flat's owner.
The culprit was actually a neighbour, Lin Zhenghuang, then 20 and a polytechnic student. He had 'mooched' on Miss Luo's wireless network to post the bomb hoax on the ************ forum on 22 Jul, 2005 - a day after the London Tube and bus bombings. (See report on facing page.)
Mooching is the unauthorised access of unprotected wireless networks.
A user can change certain computer settings to secure a wireless network at no extra cost. (See tip box, left.)
Miss Luo, who has since graduated, said: 'At that time, I did not know about mooching or the need to secure my network. It was my cousin's friend who had set up my wireless network.'
Court documents stated that it took the police more than 300 days to establish Lin's identity. He was arrested at home at 10.40am on 7 Jun 2006.
Miss Luo recalled: 'The police showed me a printout of a ************ forum page and pointed to the message, 'News break - Toa Payoh hit by bomb attacks'.
'They said, 'You posted this, right?'
'I said, 'No', but they pointed to the photo next to the user name, 'krisurf', and said it was me.'
She said the thumbnail image was of a female contestant on a local talent show. By coincidence, the contestant's name on the picture was similar to Miss Luo's.
She said: 'I was shocked. I kept telling the police officers that I didn't post the message. But they didn't believe me because it had been traced to my IP address.'
The police officers seized her laptop and a spoilt desktop from the flat.
Miss Luo was then asked to go to the police station. She went with them, hoping to clear her name.
The only other person at home then was her aunt, who wanted to be known only as Mrs Chen.
The housewife, who is in her 50s, said she had let the police officers into the flat thinking they were her niece's friends. She said in Mandarin: 'They were not wearing uniforms and I thought they knew her.
'But when they took the computers, I realised something was not right, so I ran after them without locking the front door.
'At the police van, I asked why they were taking her away. I said, 'She didn't do anything wrong'.'
Miss Luo was taken to Tanglin Police Division. On the way there, she remembered getting a call from a colleague earlier in the day.
The colleague had told her that the police had been looking for her at Far East Plaza, where Miss Luo worked part-time during the school holidays. They wanted her to 'be a witness'.
As Miss Luo did not recall witnessing any crime, she asked her boyfriend to ring the number left behind by the police. The policeman who answered the call asked her boyfriend where Miss Luo was, and hung up without a word once he heard she was at home.
The couple, who were in their respective homes, did not make anything of the call then. Hours later, the police found Miss Luo at home.
At the station, she said she was handcuffed and later, she had to give her statement. She claimed she could not call her boyfriend to let him know what had happened.
She said: 'I suspected that 'krisurf' had tapped on my network and I tried to explain this to the police. But I was told my laptop had to be sent for scanning to prove I wasn't the one who posted the bomb hoax.'
She was released when another aunt posted police bail of $5,000 for her at 11 that night. Miss Luo said that her ordeal was 'very traumatic'.
Once home, she called her boyfriend and told him what happened.
Determined to prove her innocence, he went online the next day and found that 'krisurf' had been posting new messages even while Miss Luo was with the police.
Screen captures of the postings were then e-mailed to the investigating officer.
Court documents noted: 'The investigations had caused much inconvenience to her (Miss Luo) as well as her family members, who were called up to assist in police investigations.
'Furthermore, the seizure of her laptop deprived her of its use... She could not access the important stored data in the laptop which was for an academic project assignment.'
Her laptop was left with the police for two months. The university term was ending and the Arts and Social Science student told the police she needed her laptop 'urgently' to complete essays for her subjects.
But it was in vain.
So in the two months after her arrest, Miss Luo commuted to her boyfriend's Yishun home to use his computer. Then, in mid-October, the police called and asked her to collect her desktop and laptop.
'Both items had masking tape and stickers pasted all over. My router was not returned as it might be submitted as court evidence,' she said.
Miss Luo said she did not get any more updates on the case.
She only found out from media reports that Lin, now 21 and a full-time national serviceman, was sentenced on 7 Feb to three months' jail and a $4,000 fine for using her wireless network to post the bomb hoax.
Court documents stated that computer forensic analysis 'did not reveal any electronic data of evidential value' to suggest Miss Luo's involvement in the online bomb hoax, and that 'no action was taken' against her.
So, how does she feel about the person who was responsible for her arrest? She said: 'If you'd asked me in 2005, I'd have said he deserved it.
'But now I feel sad for him that he has to go to jail.'
After her 'painful lesson', Miss Luo's wireless network is now secured.
POLICE SAY
Police spokesman, ASP Lim Tung Li, said the police will take the necessary time to investigate and determine if a person has committed a criminal offence.
'The time taken to investigate such cases will vary depending on the evidence that needs to be gathered. Under the law, a suspect may be detained up to 48 hours to assist in police investigations, though the actual length of time will depend on the complexity of the case.
'Items deemed as case exhibits can also be seized by the police as long as investigations are required.
'For this case, there was no undue delay in investigations. When the laptop was returned to the owner, the investigator had informed her verbally that she was cleared of any criminal involvement in the case and that the culprit was another person.'
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TOUGH TO HUNT DOWN CULPRIT
TRACKING down 'krisurf', otherwise known as Lin Zhenghuang, was a tedious task for the police. It took them nearly a year.
It was a challenge to establish his identity as he had used different unprotected wireless networks to access the Internet.
Court documents stated that the police identified Lin after more than 300 days 'spent in piecing the various logs obtained from the Internet service providers and follow-ups on available evidential leads'.
Lin, 21, a full-time serviceman, was arrested and charged with one count of posting a bomb hoax and another nine of mooching. Another 51 charges of mooching were taken into consideration during sentencing.
On 7 Feb, he was sentenced to three months' jail and fined $4,000.
Usage details from ************ and screenings with Singnet revealed that Lim had accessed Miss Luo Z W's wireless network to post multiple messages on the ************ forums, noted court documents.
The then-Ngee Ann Polytechnic student had also often accessed his e-mail account while mooching on other people's wireless networks.
For posting a bomb hoax, he could have been jailed up to seven years and fined $50,000.
For mooching, he could have been jailed up to three years and fined $10,000.
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HOW TO PREVENT MOOCHING
Set a password on your router (refer to your router manual, or call your ISP helpline).
Use security software from companies like McAfee and Trend Micro, which has anti-mooching features - they will detect unauthorised usage of your wireless network.
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