The Jakarta Police have arrested five people, four of which are foreigners, on suspicion of stealing funds from the accounts of customers of state-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) through ATMs.
The suspects have been skimming from ATMs in Bali, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Tangerang and Jakarta since July 2017. Bank customers have lost between Rp 500,000 and Rp 10 million.
“There were three different groups in the process of taking money using the skimming method. The members of first group were the equipment providers, where they provided tools such as the software, hardware, and cameras. Then, the tools for skimming were inserted. These tools originated from outside Indonesia and were brought into the country,” said Police Chief Commissioner, Nico Afinta, who is the Director of Criminal Investigation of the Jakarta Regional Metropolitan Police.
Nico stated that the second group was in charge of strategically placing equipment in the different ATMs they’ve chosen. This group chose ATMs in secluded areas away from big crowds, as well as those lacking security.
The members of the third group were tasked with taking the money after receiving data from the equipment previously placed on the ATMs by the other group. Money from this crime was received by the suspects through cash, transfer and moved to their Bitcoin accounts.
The suspects were identified as Caitanovici Andrean Stepan, Raul Kalai and Ionel Robert Lupu from Romania, Hungarian Ferenc Hugyec and Indonesian Milah Karmilah.
The police were able to find evidence such as 1,484 ATM cards, skimming equipment, six passports, one laptop, a deep skimmer, six spy cams, six memory cards, and five hard disks.
The five suspects are now facing up to 20 years in prison for their crimes.
Source: Detik News , The Jakarta Post
Photo courtesy of news.detik.com