About 100 Taiwanese nationals were arrested on June 28 on the Indonesian island of Bali. They are accused of illegally using immigration permits and committing online scams targeting Malaysians.
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Detainees in fluorescent orange vests with their backs turned to television cameras, a suitcase full of mobile phones and computers displayed on a table: Indonesian police staged their successful crackdown on organized crime. The 12 women and 91 men arrested in a luxury villa in the tourist paradise of Bali are suspected of belonging to an online scam network.
The suspects, all Taiwanese nationals, are alleged to have defrauded Malaysians. They are due to be deported soon. Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with cybercrime because the alleged criminal activities are outside their jurisdiction, Indonesian immigration official Safar Muhammad Godam said. However, he added that he is working ” in close collaboration » with the authorities concerned, particularly those of Malaysia.
Cybercrime, a major scourge in Southeast Asia
The proliferation of networks of cybercriminality has become a growing concern in recent years in China, Indonesia and Malaysia, with authorities stepping up efforts to stop their activities.
In 2018, Bali police arrested 103 Chinese nationals and 11 Indonesians for running a multi-million dollar online fraud ring targeting wealthy businessmen and politicians in China. A year earlier, Indonesia deported 153 Chinese nationals involved in a ring that allegedly posed as Chinese police or justice officials and defrauded people of around 6 trillion rupiah (€340 million) over a two-year period.
In a report published in January 2024, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had already warned of the explosion of cybercrime in the Golden Triangle between Burma, Laos and Thailand. Fake cryptocurrency or dating sites, online games and casinos used for money laundering, often controlled by Chinese mafias, first targeted China. Today, better equipped and taking advantage of artificial intelligence, scammers find their victims all over the world.
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