Robber Syndicate's 'Sophisticated' Strategy In Semarang, Suction Credit Up To Billions of Rupiah

JAKARTA - The Directorate of Special Criminal Investigation at the Central Java Regional Police has exposed a syndicate of mobile phone credit robber that has been in action in the city of Semarang since 7 months ago.

Central Java Police Chief Inspector General Ahmad Lutfi said his men had arrested 3 perpetrators in this case.

"The disclosure began with public reports that their cell phone bills were running high", said him, quoted by Antara, Monday, February 8.

This is the first time this crime has been exposed in Indonesia. From the report, he said, it was known that the conspirators had utilized two Based Transmitter Station (BTS) towers in the Genuk and Rejomulyo areas, Semarang City.

"The perpetrators took advantage of the technical and tactical gaps in the two BTS", he said.

The three perpetrators from Semarang who were arrested have the initials RRS as the mastermind of the crime, and the initials FDS and ATS as the executor of the credit theft.

The three perpetrators were charged with Law Number 19 of 2016 concerning information and electronic transactions and Law Number 24 of 2013 concerning population administration.

Meanwhile, Johanson Ronald Simamora, Director of Special Criminal Investigation for the Central Java Regional Police, added that the perpetrator used a modem to siphon phone credit belonging to the public who are in the operational radius of two BTS towers.

"The extracted credit is then stored on master cards", he said.

According to him, the suspect also secured evidence of 150 thousand cellular operator SIM cards. He explained that the thousands of cards were then registered with the NIKs that the perpetrators bought online.

"After registration, the stolen credit is transferred to the SIM card, then 'unregistered' before finally being sold again", he said.

This gang sells prime cards at a lower price. "If IDR 1 million credit, will selled for IDR 800 thousand", he said.

The total stolen credit that the perpetrator managed to get since operating last year is estimated at IDR 1.5 billion.