Police Arrest Perpetrators Of Online Arisan Fraud In Cirebon, Victims Lose Up To IDR 451 Million

CIREBON - Cirebon City Police (Polres), West Java, arrested a woman with the initials L (37) who was the perpetrator of a criminal fraud case in the form of an online social gathering in the area with a loss value of around Rp451 million.

"Today we are securing the perpetrator, who works as a housewife. The suspect was reported for defrauding the victim with a fundraising scheme that promised a profit in a short time," said Cirebon City Police Chief AKBP Eko Iskandar as reported by ANTARA, Tuesday, February 25.

The Cirebon City Police previously received several reports related to the case, namely the perpetrator offering fund-raising services via WhatsApp platform.

The mode used by the perpetrators is to offer a profit of 10 to 20 percent in seven days to the arisan participants, but this advantage has never been given.

In addition, he said, the perpetrators also carried out a hole-closed excavation scheme, where the money received from the participants was only used to pay the old participants.

The police chief revealed that the funds collected by the perpetrators were also lent to other parties with high interest rates, ranging from 30 to 40 percent.

"The victims were promised big profits in a short time, but in reality their money was not returned," he said.

According to Eko, due to this unsustainable system, many participants suffered losses.

When the victims began demanding their rights, the perpetrators were unable to pay the promised funds, so reports began to arrive at the authorities.

"Until now, we have received four official reports from victims who suffered losses due to the actions of the perpetrators around November 2023. However, it is possible that the number of victims could still increase," he said.

The suspect charged with Articles 372 and 378 related to embezzlement and fraud with a maximum prison sentence of four years.