Bareskrim Bongkar Sindikat Love Scamming, Hundreds Of Caucasians Become Victims

PHOTO: Rizky Adytia-VOI

JAKARTA - The Directorate of General Crimes at Bareskrim Polri revealed a fraud syndicate with international love scamming mode. Hundreds of people from various countries have become victims.

"Tiim has succeeded in uncovering criminal acts online international networks with love scamping mode," said Director of General Crimes at Bareskrim Polri Brigadier General Djuhandhani Rahardjo Puro to reporters, Friday, January 19.

From the results of the investigation, 21 people were arrested, 19 of whom were Indonesian citizens (WNI). While the rest are foreign nationals (WNA) from China.

They were secured in one of the apartment units in the Grogol Petamburan area, West Jakarta, Wednesday, January 17.

"Of the 19 perpetrators plus 2 foreign nationals, there are 3 perpetrators (two foreigners and one Indonesian citizen)", he said.

In launching the action, this syndicate uses a dating application. They pretend to be looking for a partner.

After getting a potential victim, this syndicate began to seduce by sending sexy photos. If the victim is deceived, then, then they ask to send some money.

"Furthermore, the victim was persuaded, persuaded to be able to do business opening an online store account via the link http: soop66hccgolf.com," he said.

"The perpetrators persuaded the victim to deposit Rp. 20 million for the first time the transfer so that an online store account could be opened," continued Djuhandhani.

From the results of the deepening, hundreds of foreigners and one Indonesian citizen were recorded as victims. They suffered losses ranging from tens of millions to hundreds of millions.

"We can construct cases, from there we get one citizen victim, then 367 foreign citizens who were victims, consisting of American citizens, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, German, Morocco, Turkey, Portugal, Hungary, New Jersey, India, Jordan, Thailand, Austria, Philippines, Canada, England, Moldova, Romania, Italy, Colombia," said Djuhandhani.

In this case, the three suspects were charged with Law 45 paragraph 1 in conjunction with 27 paragraph 1 of the Republic of Indonesia Law Number 19 of 2016 concerning Amendments to Law Number 11 of 2008 concerning Electronic Information and Transactions in conjunction with Article 55 and/or 378 of the Criminal Code.