Riau Islands Police Reveals Phone Sex Extortion Mode, The Perpetrators Are 9 Chinese Foreigners

The Riau Islands Regional Police uncovered cases of fraud and extortion using sex video phone calls by 10 foreign nationals. ANTARA/ HO-Polda Kepri

RIAU - The Criminal Investigation Directorate of the Riau Islands Police (Kepri) revealed cases of fraud and extortion using a sex video phone mode by 10 foreign nationals in Batam City against other foreigners in China.

"There are 10 suspects in the mode, one of whom is doing 'phone sex', the other is extorting the victim," said Head of Public Relations of the Riau Islands Police, Kombes Harry Goldenhardt, in Batam, as reported by Antara, Thursday, January 6.

Of the 10 suspects, nine of them are Chinese citizens and the other is Vietnamese, namely TTP, LH, MXJ, ZW, ZCG, LYW, TXQ, MTY, WB, and MXW. All of them were arrested in a house in Batam City.

"The suspects have been carrying out their actions since August 2021, and they have been in Indonesia since six months ago," said the Head of Public Relations of the Riau Islands Police.

The Director of Criminal Investigation at the Riau Islands Police, Kombes Teguh Widodo, said that the case began with information from the public regarding 11 foreigners and an Indonesian citizen living in the same house in Batam.

"Based on the results of the examination and the deepening of the marathon, of these 12 people, 10 are suspected of being the perpetrators of a 'porn video call'. They carry out their activities in Batam," he said.

Of the 10 suspects, one of them is a TTP woman who acts as an icon by calling and persuading the victim to balance her movements. While the other nine people have roles to profile potential victims, record videos and extort money. The crime was targeted at Chinese nationals, who had previously been mapped out by the suspects.

"They are looking for victims there. They contact them via a wechat application, after communication between the victim and the perpetrator. Some are tasked with displaying vulgar visual demonstrations," he said.

From the video call, the victim was provoked to participate in activities, and compensate for pornographic actions. Then another perpetrator recorded it.

"From that recording, we investigated, the perpetrators blackmailed officials who were persuaded to do this," he said.

He conveyed, because all the victims were foreigners, as well as the witnesses were also foreigners, the investigators conducted a case title, and then transferred the examination documents to the Directorate General of Immigration.

The Head of Information Technology and Immigration Communication at the Immigration Office Class I Special for TPI Batam, Tessa Harumdila, expressed her gratitude for the cooperation of the Riau Islands Police.

"From this incident, we continue to carry out more optimal surveillance at every entrance in Batam City," he said.