DENPASAR: Indonesian authorities have taken into custody several individuals on the well-known tourist island of Bali, suspected of operating a romantic fraud scheme aimed at American men, as announced on Wednesday (June 11).
The arrests occurred after police received a tip about suspicious behavior at a rented residence in Denpasar, the capital of Bali.
A total of 38 individuals were apprehended, including seven women.
“The arrested individuals acted as operators whose role was to locate victims for the love scam; their primary targets were Americans with Telegram accounts,” stated Bali police chief Daniel Adityajaya during a press conference.
“They impersonated women by utilizing pictures of women and fabricated identities to trap their victims.”
The suspects revealed they were working for someone overseeing the operation from Cambodia to entice American men into revealing sensitive information, according to Daniel.
They interacted with their targets via the Telegram messaging app and sent them counterfeit links.
The individuals were reportedly paid US$200 per month to obtain their victims’ data and personal information, Daniel noted.
The police initially detained nine suspects together, which led to discovering the larger network of individuals involved in the scam.
All suspects, who are Indonesian, could face up to 12 years in prison if convicted of breaching the country’s electronic transaction law.
Previously, police mentioned that numerous scammers had relocated to Indonesia and other Southeast Asian nations after China intensified its crackdown on domestic operations.
In 2019, Indonesian police apprehended 85 Chinese nationals and six Indonesians linked to an online scam that defrauded victims of millions.
In 2023, they arrested 88 Chinese nationals in Batam, Riau Islands, for operating a syndicate that deceived numerous victims in China by enticing them into sexual encounters and subsequently blackmailing them with video evidence.
Many of these victims were public officials, as reported by the police.
