Arya News - Indonesia is emerging as a new operational hub for transnational online gambling and cyber scam syndicates, according to the National Police, as a crackdown on scam centers in mainland Southeast Asia pushes some criminal networks to seek new locations.
JAKARTA – Police have arrested 31 Malaysian and Taiwanese nationals accused of running an international scam operation from a hotel in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, in the latest scam raid involving foreigners.
Pontianak Immigration Office head Sam Fernando said the group had rented 14 rooms on the hotel’s third floor, which were being used both as accommodation and as a base for their alleged scamming activities.
“They rented 14 rooms on the third floor as a place to live and to carry out activities suspected of being related to scamming,” Sam said on Thursday as quoted by Kompas.com.
Sam said the case came to light after Pontianak Police received a tip about suspicious activities involving foreign nationals at the hotel. Police and immigration officers then conducted a joint raid on Sept. 8, resulting in the arrests.
Authorities later transferred all of the foreign nationals to the Pontianak Immigration Detention Center on Jl. Adi Sucipto in Kubu Raya regency.
According to Sam, the foreign nationals had entered Pontianak at different times. Some had been in the city for about two months, while others had arrived roughly three weeks before they were detained.
Some entered Indonesia through an official land border crossing, while others arrived via Supadio Airport.
Sam said immigration officials and police were still investigating the group’s alleged scamming activities.
Initial checks indicated that the suspected operation had targeted Malaysian and Taiwanese nationals, he said.
“So far, the victims have been Malaysian nationals. No Indonesians have been identified as victims,” Sam said. The investigation is ongoing.
Indonesia is emerging as a new operational hub for transnational online gambling and cyber scam syndicates, according to the National Police, as a crackdown on scam centers in mainland Southeast Asia pushes some criminal networks to seek new locations.
Indonesian authorities have stepped up raids in recent months, targeting suspected international scam operations and detaining hundreds of foreign nationals across the country.
In late June, authorities in Medan, North Sumatra, arrested seven Chinese and Vietnamese nationals and 31 Indonesians for their alleged involvement in an international online dating scam syndicate.
In May, Central Java Police dismantled an international cyber scam syndicate that allegedly used “pig butchering” tactics to lure victims into investing large sums of money. Police arrested 39 suspects, including 28 Indonesians, seven Nepalis and four Myanmar nationals.
Also in May, the Batam Immigration Office in the Riau Islands detained 210 foreign nationals suspected of operating an online investment scam in the island city. The group included 125 Vietnamese, 84 Chinese and one Myanmar national.
Jakarta Police that month also arrested 321 foreign nationals allegedly linked to an online gambling syndicate operating from an office building on Jl. Hayam Wuruk in West Jakarta. The suspects included 228 Vietnamese and 57 Chinese nationals, while the rest were from Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.
In a separate operation in Surabaya, East Java, police in May uncovered an international scam network involving 44 people from Indonesia, China, Japan and Taiwan. They also rescued two Japanese nationals who were allegedly being held captive by the group.