Police Dismantle Fraud Of 4 Prisoners In Bojonegoro Prison, Buy Trucks With Fake Transfer Evidence

Purbalingga Police Chief AKBP Hendra Irawan/ANTARA/Sumarwoto

PURBALINGGA - Purbalingga Police Team, Central Java, uncovered an online fraud case committed by four inmates of the Bojonegoro Penitentiary (LP), East Java.

"This fraud case was revealed thanks to the victim's report on behalf of Dirno bin Saidi, a resident of Beji Village, Bojongsari District, Purbalingga Regency, in February 2023," said Purbalingga Police Chief AKBP Hendra Irawan as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, May 19.

He said the victim in January 2023 intended to sell a Dyna truck in 2009 and offered it through a "marketplace" on Facebook.

However, after the offer made by the perpetrator using an account named A Riski Hayatihanto, it turned out that the victim had been deceived by using evidence of fake transfers so that the case was reported to the Purbalingga Police in February 2023.

"Based on the report, the Purbalingga Police Satreskrim immediately carried out an investigation until finally it was able to detect the whereabouts of the WhatsApp phone number used by the perpetrators," he explained.

In this case, he said, the phone number was known to be in Bojonegoro Prison, East Java, so that his party immediately coordinated with the prison and the Bojonegoro Police.

Bojonegoro prison is very open and cooperative so that after being able to find out there were four narcotics convicts who were involved in the online fraud, namely JD, YM, TS, and TF alias TM.

According to him, the four inmates are known to have repeatedly been imprisoned for committing a number of crimes and were last involved in narcotics cases.

"We will immediately coordinate with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) so that the four inmates can be transferred to the Purbalingga Rutan on May 13, 2023 to facilitate the examination," he said.

Regarding the modus operandi used by the perpetrators, the Police Chief said that the victim's upload regarding the truck offer was found by the first perpetrator with the initials JD who played a role in finding uploads on Facebook using an A Riski Hayatihanto account.

JD then communicated with the victim and seemed to want to buy the truck. After opening the offer, JD tried to convince the victim if he would send proof of payment made in a non-cash manner or transfer.

The fake transfer evidence worth Rp120 million was made by another perpetrator with the initials YM and then sent to the victim.

"After the evidence of the fake transfer was sent to the victim, the perpetrator immediately asked to block the victim's account through the BRI Call Center," explained the Police Chief accompanied by the Deputy Chief of Police, Kompol Pujiono and Kasatreskrim AKP Suyanto.

Furthermore, he said, other perpetrators with the initials TS played a role in finding potential buyers from trucks that seemed to have been purchased or paid by the perpetrators.

In addition, the perpetrators were also looking for a rental driver to pick up and deliver the truck to the destination, including distributing the proceeds of the crime.

Meanwhile, the fourth perpetrator with the initials TF alias TM, he said, knew about the actions committed by JD, YM, and TS and received the distribution of the proceeds of the crime.

The four perpetrators will be charged with Article 378 of the Criminal Code with a penalty of 4 years in prison.

"We are still developing this fraud case to find out the possible involvement of other perpetrators," he said.

Meanwhile, one of the suspects with the initials JD said the online fraud case was the third time they had done it.

"Previously he was in Bali, then Temanggung (Central Java), and this is the third," he said.

According to him, the truck was sold at a price of Rp. 30 million and the money from the sale of the truck was then divided into his colleagues amounting to Rp. 3 million each and the rest for the needs in prison.

Meanwhile, the Head of Criminal Investigation Unit of the Purbalingga Police, AKP Suyanto, said that the driver who was hired by the perpetrator to deliver the truck to Sragen, Central Java, was asked by the perpetrators to check and see the vehicle documents, including ensuring that the victim had a BRI account and took a picture of the savings book.

"The perpetrator asked BRI's account because the bank account could be blocked at the request of someone who is not the owner on the grounds of being involved in fraud and so on," he explained.

According to him, the blocking of the account was carried out by the perpetrator before sending proof of fake transfer, so that when the victim received proof of the transfer he could not check and finally believed and then handed over the truck and its documents to the driver recruited by the perpetrator via Facebook.

He said the truck was then delivered to Sragen and handed over to another driver who was also recruited by the perpetrator via Facebook.

"So between the first driver, the second driver, the buyer, and the seller do not know each other. The perpetrators also do not know each other," he said.