Jakarta – The Directorate of General Crimes (Dittipidum) Bareskrim Polri uncovered an international network of love scamming fraud syndicates. This fraud case started with online dating applications or dating apps.
Dirtipidum Bareskrim Polri, Brigjen Pol Djuhandhani Rahardjo Puro, in his official statement explained, that the perpetrators carried out their actions by hooking up targets through a number of dating applications, such as Tinder, Bumble, Okcupid, Tantan and others. The perpetrators operated using 4 dating app profiles, both men and women who were not themselves.
“They pretend to be looking for a partner. After finding the victim, the perpetrators ask for a cellphone number, then communicate romantically or send sexy photos to convince the victim,” explained Brigjen Pol Djuhandani at the Bareskrim Polri. Jakarta Selatan, Friday, (19/ 1).
When the approach process is deemed to have clicked and is sufficient, the perpetrator then carries out profiling of the victim. The goal is to control all information and gain the victim’s trust.
In their operations, the perpetrators targeted victims who lived abroad. In carrying out their actions, the perpetrators did not experience language barriers. Because the messages used are easily translated into the victim’s language.
After successfully controlling all the information and gaining the victim’s trust, the perpetrator continued his actions by inviting the victim to start a business together.
“Next, the victim was persuaded, persuaded to be able to do business by opening an online shop account via the link http:sop66hccgolf.com,” said Brigjen Pol Djuhandani.
To start the business, the perpetrator asked the victim to make an initial deposit of Rp20 million. Payment is made via a crypto system.
“Until the victim finally wanted to invest and was promised profits. But the business was actually fake,” said Brigjen Pol Djuhandani.
The perpetrators have succeeded in defrauding 368 people from various countries. One of them is an Indonesian citizen.
“From there we got one victim who was an Indonesian citizen. Then there were 367 foreign nationals who became victims. Consisting of citizens of America, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Germany, Morocco, Turkey, Portugal, Hungary, Jersey, India, Jordan, Thailand, Austria, Philippines, Canada, England, Moldova, Romania, Italy, Colombia,” he detailed.
In this case, the police have arrested 21 people, of which 3 have been named suspects.
Even so, the police are still hunting for another suspected perpetrator. This syndicate makes a profit of Rp40 to Rp50 billion per month.
To be held accountable for their actions, the perpetrators were charged under Article 45 paragraph 1 of the ITE Law in conjunction with 27 paragraph 1 of Republic of Indonesia Law number 19 of 2016 concerning Amendments to Law Number 11 of 2008 concerning Information and Electronic Transactions in conjunction with Article 55 and/or Article 378 of the Criminal Code.
The penalty for Article 378 is a maximum of 4 years in prison and for Article ITE Law a maximum of 6 years in prison. Bembo
