Strategy and Deception in Fighting Nawala

Illustration by Andry WInarko VOI

JAKARTA - One of the apartments in North Jakarta was chosen as a YouTube filming location for online gambling promotions. The reason is that security in the apartment is more secure and not just anyone can enter, even if they are just sitting in the lobby.

The ninth floor was selected from the 26 floors the apartment has. Right out of the elevator, straight to the door with the number mentioned in the Whatsapp message received this morning. When the bell beside the door was pressed, there was a voice from inside asking about the importance of the arrival.

"Who and what is it," said a voice heard through a device installed beside the door.

After being mentioned, not long after, the door was opened and 6 people were seen in the apartment. 4 of them are men and 2 of them are women with tall, white bodies. The two women were trying on sexy clothes and several masks available at one of the tables in the corner of the living room.

This apartment has a fairly spacious living room and has 2 rooms, 1 bathroom and a balcony that can accommodate 4 adults. The four men have their respective roles. There are those who have graphic design skills, cameramen and editors, answering questions from various comments during live events and the last one has a role as location security because he is still serving as a soldier from the navy.

The two women, estimated to be 25-30 years old, took turns entering one of the rooms and sitting in front of a computer set at a fast pace. Apart from having the highest specifications, the computer is supported by the best internet connection. In front of the computer there are three cameras installed according to the desired angle. The three cameras were mounted on a tripod. It turns out that the room has been transformed into a mini studio for live online gambling games on YouTube.

Before long, one of the men who understands cameras, lighting and video editors gave the signal to the woman sitting as talent to start. "Okay, everyone is silent. Filming is about to start, Linda (not her real name-ed) is as relaxed as possible and a little naughty, okay? Remember the audience on YouTube is king, Action!" said the man giving a signal.

The woman's voice in the room could clearly be heard slurring on the audio mixer installed outside. This tool is installed on one of the laptops that has the highest specifications. There were two men who focused on monitoring the filming process in the room. The first is to answer various comments live and the second is to understand camera shooting.

The man monitoring the live comments turned out to have a telephone database of hundreds of thousands of numbers. Thousands of numbers are stored in Telegram, WhatsApp and WeChat. He announced that filming would start soon and there would be several bonuses in the form of money worth 2 million in digital form to be played on the gambling site which was being promoted via live YouTube.

Slot Site example

Distribution of Gambling Slot Information

Based on VOI monitoring, the comments recorded during the live event reached 20 thousand. The attraction that might make sense is the movement or body language of women in the studio who have slender bodies and dress a little challengingly. Based on the dissemination of information from the telephone number database plus live YouTube, it was recorded that the money entering and playing the gambling site reached 22 million rupiah. This report was received by the man who monitors YouTube comments or known as the main admin after receiving a telephone call. Even though the live YouTube is only 45 minutes long.

According to the main admin of NN, the marketing process for online gambling is divided into several parts. First, general admin or what is usually called ganol (three zero three) is CC. This is the section whose job is to disseminate information to the public. The aim is, if the information sent via the SMS gateway is responded to, it will be followed up by opening an account. And if an account is successfully created but there is no deposit, then the admin will not get a bonus. One complete account (already deposited) has a bonus of IDR 12,500. "The bonus is in addition to the salary given and is usually received every two weeks," said NN to VOI, Friday, June 21.

NN added that the telephone number database cannot/may not be the same as other online gambling sites. NN said that if it was discovered that there was the same database, especially if it was discovered that it was stolen, the admin would immediately be fired. "The similarities can be seen from the names, account numbers and registered telephone numbers. Basically, the sanctions are heavy if you tamper with someone's online gambling site's database," said NN.

To increase income/revenue, various types of marketing patterns are implemented. Starting from SMS gateways, WhatsApp broadcasts, Telegram, live on YouTube or Facebook to using artist influencers or YouTubers who have followers of up to millions of subscribers. Above the general admin is the main admin, such as NN, who is in charge of managing several general admins (CC). Apart from that, the main admin is also required to create many accounts on various social media, "However, the ones that are specifically focused on are only FB, Instagram and YouTube," said NN.

The next part is known as viseng. Viseng is an extension of Visual Engineering, which is tasked with compiling creativity to support the promotion of gambling sites on social media. This display is divided into a graphic part (composing or creating attractive images on gambling sites) and a visual part (creating scenes in the form of invitations with a short duration of under 3 minutes and live on social media).

NN explained that both sections were responsible to the gambling site coordinator. Coordinators are usually given responsibility for managing several gambling sites. "If one coordinator only holds 1-2 sites then you can be sure it is in a very small group. However, if one coordinator holds up to 15 sites then it can be categorized in the medium group," explained NN.

The rules of this game are stated by NN to run smoothly from 2020 to early 2023. However, in the middle of 2023 everything will start to get difficult and change very quickly from time to time. NN added that the income value of IDR 25 million when Live on YouTube is a very small amount. He said that the database he had recorded 259 thousand data. "If the 259 thousand data is multiplied by just IDR 200 thousand, it can reach more or less 50 million in 45 minutes," he said.

 

Image of example of backlinks used by online slot gambling

Use Backlinks to Improve Online Gambling Sites

Gambling is a complex and controversial issue. Some countries have strict regulations regarding gambling promotions, while others are more liberal. Regardless of the effectiveness of promotions by celebrities and influencers, it is important for individuals to make wise decisions regarding gambling and understand the risks and consequences.

In Indonesia, gambling, including online gambling, has a complicated status. Most forms of gambling, including brick-and-mortar casinos and sports betting, are illegal in Indonesia under existing laws.

Based on these rules, online gambling site owners still have ways to increase their income or income. Meanwhile, on the other hand, DNS Nawala, as an internet site filtering service provider, said that every day there are more than 600 thousand sites that are on the prohibited list for internet users in Indonesia to access.

DNS Nawala is a DNS service that is free to use by end users or internet service providers to get clean and safe internet access. DNS Nawala filters sites with negative content that do not comply with Indonesian decency and cultural norms, such as sites containing pornography or gambling. Apart from that, DNS Nawala also filters sites that are dangerous and violate laws and regulations, such as fraudulent sites, malware and phishing.

Executive Director of DNS Nawala, M. Yamin, said that although canceling access to negative sites is one of the surefire ways to access internet content in Indonesia, it cannot be done haphazardly.

"We also can't just block site or application access. Usually we work using manual checking methods or based on reports of violations related to negative content," he told VOI in a written message, June 22.

He said that many sites or applications actually provide quite good services. For example, YouTube, Vimeo and chat applications which basically do not provide negative content in the form of pornography.

"Well, what makes this service wrong is the users themselves. They use the service and application to access pornographic content or commit online crimes, this is what is difficult," added Yamin.

A VOI source who is still active in the world of online gambling said it was very difficult to increase the market after the newsletter. According to him, the filtering applied by Nawala is very difficult to penetrate.

"We have designed various ways to escape the Nawala police. The design starts from the composition of the programming language, the use of meta tags and studying the Google algorithm which often changes. If Nawala is caught, everything will be in vain. At this time, what makes the most sense is using backlinks from government sites, educational sites, tourism sites and also articles in the media," he told VOI.

Director of Cyber ​​Crime, Bareskrim Polri, Brigadier General Adi Vivid Bachtiar

This statement from the VOI source was confirmed by the Director of Cyber ​​Crime, Bareskrim Polri, Brigadier General Adi Vivid Bachtiar, who mentioned about 4 million government site domains that are used for online gambling. Vivid said that most of these sites were exploited by perpetrators using backlinks. The backlink is used by online gambling managers so that people who click on the government site will immediately appear for online gambling.

"We have provided information to government website managers to clean them diligently, but unfortunately many people don't heed that," he said

Furthermore, Vivid said that currently the Cyber ​​Crime Directorate had also been deployed to arrest or reveal targets of backlink online gambling operations.