The Jakarta police cyber crime department has taken over custody of six inmates at the Tanjung Gusta penitentiary, North Sumatera, for defrauding people through short text messages (SMS) sent from smuggled cell phones.
The five convicts are Andin, Ipan, Fredi, Tompul, Zul and Anto.
According to the cyber crime chief Sr. Comr. Hermawan, the convicts have used various methods to trick their victims throughout the past five years.
"This is a group that has committed a variety of frauds using false messages, SMS requests for phone credit as well as calling to lie about a family member who, it is claimed, has been arrested by the police and needs money," he said on Tuesday, as reported by kompas.com.
A victim, SK, had reported a case to the Jakarta Police in September after being tricked into sending Rp 126 million to the perpetrators. Pretending to be the victim’s child, who had been arrested by the police, the convicts demanded that the victim send money.
"While crying the perpetrators, claiming to be the child, said that he was under arrest at the police station due to a drug case," Hermawan added.
He further said that the some of the perpetrators pretended to be police officers while speaking to the victim.
"The perpetrators purposely chose the midnight to dawn period to call based on the assumption that, as people switch off their phones at that time, the victim will not be able to check the story," he added.
He further said that 1,800 other inmates at the Tanjung Gusta penitentiary were allegedly involved in the crime.
The police have seized evidence in the form of various bank accounts and transfer slips, in addition to several cell phones.
