Jakarta – The Directorate of Economic and Special Crimes (Dittipideksus) of the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Indonesian National Police arrested 8 perpetrators of illegal online loans (pinjol) named KSP Cinta Damai. They often slander their customers as drug dealers who are on the wanted list (DPO) to collect debts.
“So we have made arrests, the total is 8 suspects. Where they make messages, writings that may be defamatory in nature. For example, it is made as if the borrower is a methamphetamine dealer, a drug dealer,” said the Director of Economic and Special Crimes at the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency, Brigadier General Helmy Santika in a virtual press conference, Thursday (29/7/2021).
“Then I’m sorry, if she’s a woman, it’s cropped, pasted with indecent ones, and others,” he continued.
The arrests were made in North Jakarta and Medan, North Sumatra. During the arrest, several pieces of evidence were also confiscated, such as thousands of SIM cards, a modem pool for sending SMS blasting, cellphones, and laptops that functioned to see the flow of communication transactions from the perpetrators.
In addition, Helmy said the police were still hunting for two other suspects who were foreign nationals (WNA). Bareskrim has proposed to block the two suspects from leaving Indonesia.
“There are several suspects who are still being pursued by foreigners. We have blocked this and sent DPOs to these two people,” explained Helmy.
Helmy promised to continue to investigate the network of illegal lenders who slandered his customers as drug dealers. Only, said Helmy, the perpetrators who have not been caught could make other new applications that need to be watched out for.
“Then, we will continue to investigate these networks. However, we need to say that there are a few obstacles, because this is the nature of using technology. Once it has been taken down by the OJK Investment Alert Task Force, in a short time he will be able to make a new one,” he added.
For his actions, the suspects were charged with Article 45 Paragraph 3 of the ITE Law, Law Number 8 of 1999 concerning Consumer Protection, and Article 311 of the Criminal Code. They face up to 5 years in prison.
