W

e are often advised to use our talents in the best way we can, and that is exactly what Harsya Muhad Armal Samaun, 44, did, but for all the wrong reasons.

Harsya’s alleged venture as a scam artist who could imitate the voice of different people, men and women, to trick his victims eventually came to an end after the Jakarta Police arrested him on Tuesday.

The arrest followed a report from AM, 23, one of the suspect’s victims, who claimed to have lost a total of
Rp 35 million (US$2,668) in the course of a fabricated courtship.

According to a police report, the suspect first called AM in June, putting on a girl’s voice and introducing himself as Jacqueline Michelle, aka Elin, the daughter of a famous businessman.

Harsya asked AM to connect on Facebook so they could get know each other better. The police said the suspect had learned about AM’s identity, including his phone number, from his Facebook account.

On Facebook the suspect started to send AM photos of Elin, and after communicating for some time — both on social media and through phone calls — AM asked Elin, in reality Harsya, to meet up.

“The suspect sent AM photos so the victim believed him,” Adj. Sr. Comr. Budi Hermanto, head of the mobile detective unit at the Jakarta Police, said on Wednesday.

The suspect agreed to meet, but he told AM to first meet an aide named Harsya, his real identity in this case. When the two met, Harsya told AM that Elin would only meet him in a hotel for fear of “being seen by journalists”.

A few days later, Harsya asked for Rp 1.2 million from AM to book a hotel room where the victim could meet Elin.

AM then went to the hotel, but he did not meet Elin but rather Harsya, who told him Elin could not come for some reason but that the two could talk by phone.

“Each time the victim wanted to call Elin the suspect always went out of the hotel room [to answer AM’s phone call],” Budi explained.

While talking over the phone, the suspect, in the guise of his alter ego Elin, persuaded AM to marry her. He asked for another sum of money to buy jewelry for their marriage, upon which AM sent Rp 5.5 million.

Later, Harsya called AM again pretending to be Elin’s mother, asking him for Rp 700,000 to pay for a marriage certificate and money for a dowry.

To convince AM further, the suspect called the victim pretending to be Elin’s father as well as her mother.

He also called the victim pretending to be a psychic named Ki Joko Bodo, telling him that he would receive great fortune if he married Elin.“All the roles were played by the suspect Harsya. He could imitate a variety of voices,” Budi said.

The suspect kept asking for cash from AM until the latter ran out of money.

AM, who according to a police report was working as an attorney, later talked about the matter to his parents and eventually realized that he had been duped by the suspect, leading him to report the matter to the Jakarta Police.

The police said the victim lost Rp 35 million in total. According to a police statement, officers have also seized several items from the suspect that indicated there may have been other victims.