The Ministry Of Communication And Information Asks The Public To Be Alert To Protect Personal Data From Online Fraud

The public must carefully read and look carefully at the contents of the SMS. (photo: Freestock / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The Director General of Information Applications at the Ministry of Communication and Information (Kemenkominfo), Semuel A. Pangerapan, encourages the public to be vigilant by recognizing the modus operandi of online fraud perpetrators and getting used to protecting personal data.

"The Ministry of Communication and Informatics asks the public to be aware of the various modes of online fraud that usually occur in the digital space, such as phishing, pharming, sniffing, money mule, and social engineering," said Semuel in the recent webinar "Beware of Illegal Online Loans."

The man who is familiarly called Sammy explained that the mode of fraud in the form of phishing is often carried out by individuals who claim to be from official institutions by using telephone, email or text messages.

“It's as if it's from an official institution, but actually they want to dig up so that we can provide our personal data. These personal data are usually used for subsequent crimes. They ask for sensitive data to access important accounts, which can lead to identity theft and loss,” said Sammy.

If this is the case, Sammy asks that the public must carefully read and look carefully at the contents of the SMS or email received, whether the sender is really from the original institution.

The second mode, according to Sammy, is cellphone pharming, which is a fraud with the mode of directing its prey to a fake website where the domain name system entry that is pressed or clicked by the victim will be stored in cache.

"So that it can make it easier for perpetrators to access perpetrators' devices illegally. For example, the creation of a domain as if similar to the origin of the institution from the original. Perpetrators will put or install malware so that later they can access it illegally," said Sammy.

"Cases like this happen a lot, for example, someone whose WhatsApp is tapped or taken over because the cellphone has been installed with malware by the perpetrator so that their personal data is stolen," he added.

Regarding the third mode, Sammy calls it sniffing. According to him, with this mode, the perpetrators will hack to collect information illegally through the existing network on the victim's device and access applications that store important user data.

“Sniffing is the most dangerous if we use or access public Wi-Fi that is in the public, let alone use it for transactions. This is dangerous, because sniffing usually happens on networks that are commonly accessed by the public, that's where the perpetrators take advantage of it,” said Sammy.

The fourth mode, namely money mule, this type of fraud, for example, there are people who ask their victims to receive some money into their account to be transferred to someone else's account.

“If they dare to clear a check abroad, we can get a check but when we check it turns out that the check is fake. As soon as we enter it, if there is an entry process, it will appear in our account first. if it's not clearing, cut it. Then, if it has been used, it must be returned," said Sammy.

Meanwhile in Indonesia itself, continued Sammy, usually perpetrators will ask potential victims to pay their taxes first.

“This money mule is usually asked by the perpetrator and the potential victim, do you want the gift or the tax to be sent first. So, now people need to be careful because this money mule is used for money laundry or money laundering. I will send you money, but you have to transfer it back to this account. So, this is also rampant and we need to be aware of it," said Sammy.

Finally, Sammy mentioned the fifth mode, namely social engineering. He emphasized that this mode needs to be watched out so as not to become a victim of online fraud.

“So this social engineering, the perpetrator manipulates the victim's psychology so that they don't realize they provide important and sensitive information that we have. Perpetrators take the OTP code or password because they understand the behavior of the target. In other words, people are often not aware that they often share data that should be protected,” said Sammy.

Sammy said, online fraud can take place because of the dynamics of the use of digital space that is increasingly widespread. According to him, transaction activities in the digital space can cause someone to commit a crime in the form of online fraud.

Not without reason, considering that currently Sammy explained that there are 202.6 million internet users in Indonesia. This is a very large number, 170 million people are active on social media or 87 percent use the Whatsapp messaging application, 85 percent access Instagram and Facebook, with an average use of 8 hours 52 minutes a day.

"So, this exceeds the time limit for our society to communicate in the digital space so that it can trigger someone to commit a crime of fraud by taking advantage of the situation to get an advantage," concluded Sammy.