Kenneth Yeung casts an evil eye on love spell scammers.
It’s that time of the year again when the lifeblood of non-subscription journalism, advertising revenue, seeks its next transfusion via a so-called ‘love issue’. Valentine’s Day is the easiest vein for chasing the advertorial dollar in February.
And once again, despite my contempt for the commercialisation of romance – now packaged in ghastly AI-generated cliches – I’m called upon to write a relevant article. Last year’s effort, a beautiful feature on ‘Lying Bule Boyfriends’ went down like a lead balloon, frightening away at least one discerning advertiser and was deleted from Indonesia Expat’s website. It was also derisively dismissed as “boomer humour” – a term popular among those with all the wit of a decomposing goldfish.
So this year, I’m plodding back to the oft-trodden path of love spells peddled by charlatans who profit by preying on people afflicted by superstition, desperation and other horrific social disorders.
Mind Control
Love spells, known locally as pelet cinta, are administered by a dukun (shaman) – usually a man – who claims to possess supernatural powers. Pelet loosely means a ‘mind control spell’. As ever, it goes without saying that love spells are nonsense and any efficacy depends entirely on susceptibility to superstitious claptrap.
Practitioners claim their spells are commonly sought to win someone’s heart in cases of unrequited love. We all know the score: You fall head over heels in lust with someone, but the feeling isn’t mutual. So rather than move on, you buy a spell to make them fall in love with you.
Any relationship built on the bedrock of fantasy and deception probably won’t end well. But dukun are also consulted for love spells when an existing relationship goes sour. Many buyers are married women, desperate to regain the fidelity of a philandering husband. There are also women hoping to transform straying boyfriends into loyal husbands.
In the old days, you had to visit a dukun in person and hand over some cash, as well as a personal item from the target, such as a photo, sweaty clothing, a used tissue, hair or even fingernail clippings. Then you might be able to witness the spell-casting ritual, involving incantations over flower petals, scented oil, amulets, candles, incense and other props. Nowadays, you can do it all online, sending just a photo of the target and transferring the fee.
Purveyors claim their mystical incantations modify a person’s subconsciousness, causing them to become obsessed with and fall in love with the buyer of the spell. One dukun emphasises that love spells don’t work well on strangers – they’re more effective when the user is already close to the target. Well, that’s dashed my plan to have Taylor Swift and the members of BlackPink shower me with affection and money.
Social Media Spells
Given Indonesia’s love affair with social media, which caters mainly to narcissists and perverts with the attention span of a goldfish skeleton, you might expect loads of scrollable content and “stories” about people paying for love spells. There are many on TikTok, but most are glowing testimonials posted on accounts of dukun. “After I consulted with this clever dukun, my cheating husband came back to me and lost his appetite for other women, and my business became profitable,” is a common theme.
There are also some excruciatingly dull TikTok videos showing women dancing to a dangdut song titled “Pelet Cinta“. But there are few detailed personal videos depicting the actual application of spells, partly because spells are considered a form of black magic and therefore forbidden by religion.
Nevertheless, plenty of dukun are plying their services on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp and other platforms. Relationship-wise, you can buy spells touted to: make a person obedient and sexually submissive; make an unfaithful spouse return; and attract a person of the same sex. Some online media outlets promote this balderdash as real and even list contact details for dukun who claim to be able to resolve “medical or non-medical illnesses, and other problems”.
What are the solutions offered to “other problems”? Protecting houses against witches and ghosts, curing erectile dysfunction with elephant semen, gaining charisma, and making a business successful. Some of the grimmer spells on offer include: causing someone to suffer a stroke, making a fetus disappear into the supernatural realm (an apparent miscarriage/abortion service), and making someone suffer a fatal accident.
Criminal Claims
In other words, con artists are using major online platforms to offer spells they claim will cause desired targets to have sex with the buyer and cause enemies to have fatal accidents. If that sounds illegal, it is. Under Indonesia’s updated Criminal Code, which came into effect at the start of 2026, anyone who claims, advertises or sells supernatural services said to cause illness, death or mental suffering can be jailed for 1 year and 6 months or fined up to Rp200 million. Penalties rise by a third if the act is done for profit or habitually.
The new sanctions have not yet deterred scammers. I contacted one dukun who advertises on Facebook. Within seconds, he replied, offering a flat rate of Rp450,000 (US$27), whether for a love spell or a death spell, merely to cover the cost of materials for the ritual, he assured me. He also requested: my full name and date of birth, the target’s name, photos of me and the target, and an explanation of the problem.
I asked whether a fatal accident spell could lead to trouble with the police. He insisted there would be no legal repercussions because the target wouldn’t know what had happened.
If you prefer to skip the middleman in casting a spell, shysters are using e-commerce behemoth Tokopedia to flog magical oils, amulets, stones and other paraphernalia for prices ranging from Rp50,000 to Rp18 million. Plaudits to rival online marketplace, Shopee, where a search for ‘pelet’ yields only pet-food pellets.
So, if you’re unlucky in love, rather than wasting time and money on spurious spells, or taking matters into your own hands, you may have to resign yourself to the growing trend of AI romance. Let’s be honest, many people now struggle to write and think for themselves; they might as well outsource their love life to an algorithm too.