Police have arrested nine Chinese nationals and three Indonesians for their alleged involvement in online fraud.

Indonesian police arrested them on Jan. 28 in cooperation with Interpol and Chinese police.

The 12 are suspected of using VoIP (internet telephony) to defraud their victims, most of whom are Chinese nationals.

One of the arrests took place in Jakarta, while the other 11 were arrested in Surabaya. '€œThe team leader is among those arrested,'€ Sr. Comr. Mujiono, who heads the National Police'€™s special crimes division, said on Monday.

Mujiono said each member of the team had their own expertise, such as an Indonesian national, who was an expert in information technology (IT). The team leader apparently received money from China that was spent in Indonesia to rent houses and pay each member of the syndicate.

They controlled fraud operations from Jakarta, Surabaya, Bali and Semarang, Mujiono elaborated. The fraudsters would call their victims in China, telling them that they had won some prize and that in order to claim that prize, they had to pay a certain fee. After paying the fee, the victim would receive nothing.

Another modus operandi would see team members tell their victims that their bank accounts were about to be frozen by court order because of money laundering. To avoid the purported confiscation or blockage of their funds, the victims were required to transfer a certain amount of money to bank account controlled by the criminals.

According to information from Chinese police, many Chinese citizens had become victims of such fraud, said Mujiono. '€œWe will prosecute them in Indonesia. We will coordinate with Chinese police and Interpol," Mujiono said. (bbn)(+)

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