Three Online Crooks Face Arrest in Jakarta

Police in Jakarta lately arrested three cyber-criminals on charges they organized an online fraud through e-mail, thus published thejakartapost.com dated March 21, 2012.

Actually, while executing their attack, the suspects dispatched one spam mail, during October 2009, to one Mohammad Oda Sugarda, asserting that he was the winner of USD1m worth prize money from Yahoo! Beta.

Alongside, the suspects insisted that Sugarda could claim the award only after he wired (huge) money amounting US$ 462,108,048 towards costs involving bank management, lawyers' fees, and expenses for insurers and notaries.

However, even after wiring the amount asked for, in stages, the victim never received the award.

So when he realized the con against him, the victimized Sugarda approached the police, which ultimately resulted in the 3 nationals' arrest, who belonged to different African countries. The arrested individuals comprised 2 Nigerians identified as 39-year-old ET alias MB and 37-year-old AO alias DV, and one Cameroonian recognized as 35-year-old EBMG alias JPT, police disclosed.

Talking further about the case, Adj. Sr. Comr. Audie Latuheru, Chief of Cyber-Crime Unit of the Police Department stated that 6 mobile phones, 2 laptops, and some counterfeit certificates and documents were confiscated along with 3 safe-deposit containers having fake American Dollar bills, so published thejakartapost.com.

Latuheru further stated that within the purview of the Criminal Code and the Information and Electronic Transactions Law, authorities have charged the 3 alleged culprits who might be sentenced to a maximum of 6-yrs of incarceration as well as a fine of a maximum of Rp1bn incase proved guilty.

He added that the culprits had run their last operation in Indonesia although their buddies attacked inside Malaysia.

The Chief, since the incident, has appealed to everyone for being cautious incase they got an award/lottery e-mail, which set specific conditions that must be fulfilled towards claiming the money.

Moreover, Police suggested certain tips for avoiding the above kinds of e-mail scams such as: any lawful organization say Yahoo! (like within the above instance) wouldn't ever request for advance fees from its winners, while any such request should clearly indicate Internauts that it was an instance of fraud.

Related article: Three New Threats With Highest Percentages in Top Ten

» SPAMfighter News - 3/28/2012