CoFTRA Blocks 1,075 Illegal Website Domains

JAKARTA - The Commodity Futures Trading Supervisory Agency (CoFTRA) of the Ministry of Trade blocked 1,075 domains of illegal websites in the field of commodity futures trading (PBK) in the first half of 2023.

The blocking, which was carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, is Bappebti's strategic effort in minimizing the rise of illegal PBK investment offers in Indonesia today.

"CoFTRA will continue to carry out cyber patrols of entities that promote, advertising, and offer illegal term trading investments in Indonesia, both through internet, social media, and other online media," said Head of CoFTRA Didodiatmoko in a written statement in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Friday, July 7.

This aims to prevent illegal promotions, advertisements, and investment offers in the field of futures trading from being accessible in Indonesian territory.

This step is the government's effort to protect the public from potential losses caused by illegal investments.

Didid said this step was an effort by the government to provide legal certainty of business for business actors in the field of futures trading.

Furthermore, to be able to carry out futures trading business activities in Indonesia, each party must have a business license issued by CoFTRA.

"Transacting in illegal entities, especially those abroad are very risky. CoFTRA cannot facilitate the community in order to mediate in the event of a dispute (dispute) between the community and the illegal entity," said Didid.

Meanwhile, Head of the Legislation and Enforcement Bureau, Aldison, said that currently there are still many investment offers under the guise of futures of trade.

According to him, the public seems to be invited to invest in futures of trade, but in fact this is not a future trade.

"This mode is often found in the community through messaging applications such as Whatsapp, Telegram, and the like. People are lured with big profits from being entrusted with trading funds. After transferring funds, not the profits obtained, the losses suffered," said Aldison.

Furthermore, what is often found is an investment offer under the guise of futures trading or crypto assets with a member get member scheme.

In futures trading, it is prohibited to use a customer recruitment mechanism through a member get member scheme or multi-level marketing (MLM).

In the future, CoFTRA urges the public to be more vigilant and not easily tempted by the lure of high profits in a short time, let alone promising no risks.

Futures trading is high risk, high return, meaning that besides being able to bring big profits, it also has the potential to suffer no less losses.

"For this reason, before deciding to invest, the public needs to ensure the legality of the company and study and recognize the investment risk. To find out the legality of companies that offer futures trading, it can be accessed through the official website of CoFTRA," said Aldison.