OJK: It's Not Infrequent For High Education People To Be Victims Of Fraud On Illegal Financial Activities

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Chief Executive of the Behavior Supervisory of Financial, Education, and Protection Business Actors of OJK Consumers Friderica Widyasari Dewi said that it is not uncommon for highly educated people to become victims of fraud related to illegal financial activities.

The National Financial Literacy and Inclusion Survey (SNLIK) by OJK in 2022, said Friderica, does show that public financial literacy is directly proportional to the level of education. Even so, people with higher education also often experience fraud.

"For example, if they save or deposit their money, they are not officially or entrusted to people they already believe in, such as sales, agents, or representatives. For example, priority customers believe that sometimes they want to sign blanks and others," Friderica said at a press conference on the results of the May 2024 OJK Board of Commissioners Meeting in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Tuesday, June 11.

Friderica said financial literacy must continue to be pursued so that public understanding can increase. The Illegal Financial Activity Eradication Task Force (Satgas PASTI) also continues to carry out educational and socialization programs to increase public awareness of various illegal investment offers, either through seminars, workshops, public layan advertisements, and so on.

According to Friderica, there are several factors why a person becomes a victim of illegal financial activities, one of which is psychological factors in the person's personality who easily believes when he gets an offer of large returns or profits quickly.

Access to formal financial products, such as banking, also likely makes people turn to illegal investments. In addition, continued Friderica, technological developments are currently facilitating the spread of various information including hoaxes.

Then, according to the woman who is familiarly called Kiki, the modus operandi of fraud related to illegal finance is also increasingly sophisticated even though the financial services sector (SJK) continues to innovate.

Therefore, OJK continues to invite various stakeholders to educate the wider community about the dangers of illegal investment and the dangers of behavior if consumers are not careful and irresponsible.

For information, the PASTI Task Force has stopped as many as 915 illegal financial entities from January 1 to May 31, 2024. The total illegal financial entities that have been successfully eradicated consist of 19 illegal investments and 896 illegal online loans (pinjol).

In addition, noted OJK, complaints from illegal entities received were 7,560 complaints, including 7,194 illegal loan complaints and 366 illegal investment complaints.