OJK Reveals Love Scam as a Global Trend in Digital Financial Crimes

JAKARTA - The Chief Executive of the Financial Services Authority (OJK) Financial Services, Education, and Consumer Protection Authority (OJK) Friderica Widyasari Dewi revealed that digital fraud disguised as love/relationship/romance scams is becoming a trend in financial crime that continues to increase globally.

"It is also proven in Indonesia that the recent incident was in Yogyakarta where a syndicate was found operating internationally," he said at a press conference on the results of the December 2025 Monthly Board of Commissioners (RDK) Meeting, Friday, January 9.

Previously, the Yogyakarta City Police dismantled an alleged international love scamming fraud network operating in Sleman Regency, Yogyakarta Special Region.

The disclosure of the case was carried out through a hand-in-hand operation at the PT Altair Trans Service office located on Jalan Gito Gati, Ngaglik District, on Monday, January 5.

In practice, the syndicate uses online dating apps that are imitations of the original Chinese app called WOW and company employees are recruited as chat administrators who pretend to be women and adjust their identities to the country of origin of the prospective victims.

They then use emotional approaches to persuade users to buy coins or top up to send virtual gifts available in the application and after the gift is sent, the victim will receive content gradually in the form of pornographic photos and videos.

Most of these fraud victims are foreign nationals from various countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

Friderica, who is familiarly called Kiki, explained that this type of crime has a very high cross-border risk because it uses the internet and digital applications to reach victims in various countries.

"These victims are manipulated emotionally, feel that they have a relationship or have a relationship and may then be persuaded and so on, so that the victims voluntarily transfer a certain amount of money because they feel that they have a special relationship with the opposite sex, so that they experience loss of money in a very large amount," he said.

In addition to financial losses, victims also face serious psychological impacts due to emotional manipulation, which in many cases is difficult to recover.

Through the Illegal Financial Activities Eradication Task Force (Satgas PASTI), OJK continues to appeal to the public to remain vigilant against various evolving fraud methods, including love scams, and prevention efforts are carried out by utilizing various communication channels.

"The PASTI Task Force uses various communication channels to reach the community widely by providing anti-scam messages that are spread through social media, then mass media, mass transportation, podcasts, and various other media are displayed directly on other channels, banking such as at ATMs, then mobile banking applications, and so on," he said.

Based on data until the end of 2025, the Indonesia Anti Scam Center recorded 3,494 reports of love scam fraud cases with a total loss of Rp. 49.19 billion.

Therefore, he conveyed that OJK continues to invite the public to increase vigilance and caution against various forms of manipulation, especially fraud in the guise of romantic relationships.