The Jakarta Police last night raided a house in East Cilandak, Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta and arrested 33 Chinese nationals suspected of cyber crime. It turns out that they were part of a really elaborate extortion scheme.
The police say the 33 set up a call center in Jakarta to extort corrupt government officials and businessmen in China. But, unlike Robin Hood who stole from the rich to give to the poor, these people stole for their own gain.
“They built a server here that could detect corrupt officials with fat bank accounts in China,” said Grand Commissioner Herry Heryawan of the Public Crimes Investigation Directorate at the Jakarta Police, as quoted by Kompas today.
Herry explained that using the data gained from their server, the suspects called up their targets in China and blackmailed them. The targets were then told to wire money to the suspects’ accomplices in China.
However, the 33 suspects arrested in Jakarta may actually be victims of human trafficking. The police say they were promised jobs at restaurants and legitimate call centers in Jakarta by their employers, only to find themselves thrown into this extortion scheme.
“Authorities are still looking for their recruiter and the brains behind their arrival in Indonesia,” Herry Heryawan told Vivanews.
This seems to be a high-stakes crime as one of the 33, 25-year-old Siau Pei, jumped to his death from the second floor of the house when police raided the house last night.
From the raid, the police confiscated a handful of electronic devices such as 7 laptops, 14 iPads, 54 mobile phones, and 65 Public Switch Telephone Network units. The suspects told the police they had based their operations in the house for the past year.
Reader Interactions