Displacing Cambodia, Has Indonesia Become a Hub for Cybercrime?

All the arrested perpetrators had distinct roles, from administrators and customer service to debt collectors. This was revealed by the Director of General Criminal Acts (Dirtipidum) of Bareskrim Polri, Brigadier General Wira Satya Triputra. Regarding the role of the Indonesian citizen (WNI) who was arrested, he stated that it is still under further investigation. “We will recheck the role of the WNI, but for now, he is definitely a customer service,” he said, quoted from detikNews on Monday (11/5). Another fact about the involvement of the arrested WNI: Wira mentioned that the individual had previously worked in Cambodia as an online gambling admin. He returned to Indonesia and then joined the syndicate operating in Hayam Wuruk. Previously, in the Canggu area of Bali, police also successfully raided a villa used as a cybercrime operations centre. In the operation conducted on Wednesday (29/4), authorities arrested 35 foreign nationals (WNA). Summarising detikBali, investigators from Ditressiber stated that all the arrested perpetrators had a structured division of tasks. Their roles included system operators, account managers, and financial transaction controllers connected to international networks. In this operation, police also seized evidence such as computers, servers, mobile phones, and digital data showing systematic and massive online gambling activities. Most recently, a cybercrime network was also discovered in Batam. On Friday (8/5), the Directorate General of Immigration arrested 210 foreign nationals (WNA) in Batam City, Riau Islands (Kepri). This arrest was related to online investment scam practices. “Today we held a press conference regarding the joint operation of the Directorate General of Immigration together with the police. We conducted early detection and apprehended around 210 people related to investment scam fraud,” said the Director General of Immigration of the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections (Imipas), Hendarsam Marantoko, quoted from detikNews on Friday (8/5/2026). The proliferation of these cybercrime practices has led several parties to suspect that syndicates previously operating in Cambodia and Myanmar have moved to Indonesia. Quoting detikNews, the National Central Bureau (NCB) Hubinter Polri confirmed the phenomenon of shifting bases for online gambling and scams from Myanmar, Cambodia, to Laos to Indonesia. “Today’s developments show that the pattern of transnational crime has begun to shift to Indonesia, as I mentioned yesterday when we in Batam uncovered the same thing, that after the crackdown on online operation patterns, both scamming consisting of love scams, online investments including online gambling,” said the Secretary of NCB Hubinter Polri, Brigadier General Untung Widyatmoko, during a press conference at the site of the online gambling raid in Hayam Wuruk.