As technology develops, so too does fraud, yet Indonesia remains beset by plenty of old-school scams that rely on superstition, corruption, and gullibility.
Here’s our list of the top 10 scams connected to Indonesia this year.
Bogus Dukun Gets Death for Murders
Slamet Tohari, known as Mbah Slamet, was sentenced to death in January 2024 for murdering at least 12 people between 2020 and 2023. His victims, who believed his claim of magical money multiplication, were poisoned with cyanide-laced water when they demanded refunds. Slamet was arrested in March 2023 in Banjarnegara, Central Java, where police discovered 12 bodies buried on his property. In October 2024, he was transferred to Nusakambangan Island prison, along with his accomplice, Budi Santoso (alias Bodrex), who had lured victims through social media.
Election Fever
In an election year, there are plenty of opportunities for scammers to take advantage of naive legislative candidates. Gus Abi, a durian seller from Tangerang, posed as a dukun, claiming he could help a Golkar Party candidate in Central Java magically transform Rp300 million into Rp3 billion and also into votes. Instead, he and an accomplice stole the money and had squandered most of it on “personal pleasures” by the time police caught up with them. In a separate case, police in August arrested a dukun in East Java for duping a failed legislative candidate into paying Rp325 million on the promise of withdrawing Rp60 billion from a “mystical bank”.
Pig Butchering Scam Slavery
Hundreds of Indonesians from low-income families have been promised jobs in Thailand, only to be trafficked to Myanmar and forced into slavery in online fraud schemes known as pig butchering scams. These scams involve building trust with victims, often via bogus romantic relationships to persuade them to invest, especially in crypto schemes, and then defrauding them. From 2023 to the end of November 2024, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry repatriated 196 Indonesians tricked into working for scammers in Myanmar. Officials warn that new cases continue to emerge.
Negative Aura Nudity Blackmail
In January 2024, a woman from Lampung province joined a WhatsApp group, where a man from Banten province claimed he could see a “negative aura” on her body, through a photo she shared. He offered to remove it for a fee of Rp60 million, purportedly to buy a buffalo for a ritual. The woman transferred Rp56 million. The man later continued the “treatment” via a video call, instructed the woman to undress – and recorded her. He then threatened to share the recording, so she transferred him a further Rp32.5 million. The man was arrested in August and faces up to six years in jail.
Phony Job Offers
There are daily warnings about false job offers in Indonesia. What’s the worst that can happen? You submit an application or attend an interview and there’s no job? No. For example, a policeman this year allegedly asked people looking for work with Indonesia’s state-owned rail company to pay Rp50 million to get a position but was unable to deliver.
COVID Bed Linen Scam
When COVID-19 hit Indonesia in 2020, big profits were made from test kits, protective gear, and other hospital supplies. In the East Java capital of Surabaya, a known scammer, Greddy Harnando, teamed up with textile products businesswoman Indah Catur Agustin. Claiming they had major purchase orders for single-use bed linen, they offered potential investors monthly returns of 4%, along with the return on principal investment. After fleecing one investor of Rp4.825 billion, Greddy was, in July 2024, sentenced to 2.6 years in jail, while Indah received a 2-year sentence. They are now back on trial for allegedly scamming Rp171.75 billion from a local woman via the same swindle.
Exorcising Demons
In November 2024, a woman in North Jakarta encountered four scammers at a market. They claimed a demon was following her and threatening her child. The quartet offered to perform an exorcism, in which the woman had to ritually hand over cash and gold totaling Rp500 million. The scammers surreptitiously switched the loot for some bottled water and scarpered.
Foreign-Run Boiler Rooms
Indonesia remains a magnet for foreign scam syndicates that don’t dare operate from their own countries due to fear of prosecution. Instead, these criminals send their fellow citizens off to work in Indonesia. This includes everything from smooth-talking British conmen in Jakarta running boiler room scams (in which generally elderly people are tricked into investing in worthless stocks) to Chinese and Taiwanese gangs running online scams. In June, police arrested over 100 Taiwanese for cybercrime at a villa complex in Bali. In September, officials in Surabaya nabbed 10 nine Chinese nationals and one Vietnamese woman. The group used TikTok to sell cheap goods that were never delivered and manipulated other victims through love scams and extortion.
Black Money Goes Abroad
The black money scam – in which victims are asked to buy an expensive chemical to wash dye off “smuggled US dollars” (that aren’t real) has been around for decades. In a case of “sending coals to Newcastle”, an Indonesian citizen, Tuma Thierry Henry, was arrested at Washington Dulles International Airport on the 30th of October, 2024, for carrying 285 pieces of paper, comprising two black paper bundles and one white paper bundle. Airport police charged him with felony forgery.
Chinese Ponzi Kingpin Nabbed
Lin Qiang, a Chinese fugitive wanted for running a US$14 billion Ponzi scheme, was arrested in Bali when trying to fly to Singapore on the 1st of October, 2024. He had conned about 50,000 people in China by promising high returns through false investments. He tried to evade capture by using a Turkish passport and changing his name, but was identified through facial recognition technology at the airport in Bali.