MAKASSAR - The Makassar Police, South Sulawesi, have named three suspects for fraudulent social gatherings accompanied by online fraudulent investments.
"We have determined the three perpetrators as suspects, respectively, two women with the initials JD, 20 years old, MD, 22 years old, and men AR, 22 years old," said Head of Criminal Investigation Unit of Makassar Polrestabes Kompol Jamal Fathur Rakhman, quoted by Antara, Friday, September 17.
For each role, he said, the role of JD alias Puput as the brain and owner of the arisan, while MD was the admin on Instagram social media named 'Arisan Amanah' and AR was JD's girlfriend as the owner of the traffic control account for the disbursement of money at the arisan.
"The three suspects are subject to multiple layers of articles, namely the ITE Law and the Criminal Code on fraud and embezzlement Article 378 and Article 372 with a penalty of six years in prison," said Kompol Jamal.
From the results of the examination, it was recorded that there were more than 300 members who participated in the social gathering accompanied by the fraudulent investment. Losses are estimated at hundreds of millions of rupiah.
"We are still waiting for complaints and reports from other victims. Because there are other victims from Kendari and other areas who have invested more than Rp. 100 million," said Kompol Jamal.
In addition, the modus operandi used to attract many people is to join this bogus social gathering, the perpetrators hire the services of a local celebrity in order to attract public attention so that netizens or netizens know better.
The fraudulent practice, Jamal added, has been going on since February 2021, and was only uncovered in early September after the victims realized that the money had not been returned, but had been stolen by the perpetrators.
"We are holding these suspects for further processing, while waiting for reports from other victims, not only in Makassar, but also from other areas," he said.
Previously, the police arrested the perpetrator at his boarding house on Jalan Pelita Raya on Wednesday, September 15, 2021, for reporting the victim who felt cheated by the perpetrator JD alias Puput. The perpetrator carried out the fraudulent act with the help of his girlfriend and friend.
One of the victims, Ana explained, the start of the social gathering went smoothly. As a rule, every member must be registered to join the social gathering in order to be able to participate in the investment. The scheme is, whoever the top name goes up, the social gathering will be disbursed.
Payment deposits are also different from top to bottom starting from Rp. 1 million, Rp. 1.5 million, Rp. 2 million and so on in order to be able to get (withdrawal). For the investment part or called dos, the payment is also different, for example an investment of IDR 7 million in 10 days returns IDR 10 million.
Ana said, related to the social gathering and fraudulent investment, she had been deceived by Rp. 30 million.
The same thing was conveyed by another victim, Sari. Each member must participate in an arisan starting from Rp. 1 million to Rp. 15 million in order to participate in the investment scheme. Meanwhile, the money disbursement process is determined by the perpetrators through online submissions on the social media.
"There are hundreds of members, mostly from outside Sulawesi, from Papua, the investment was Rp. 180 million. My loss was Rp. 39.7 million during my participation, and the money did not come back," explained the housewife.
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