First Collaboration Between Polri and FBI Uncovers World-Class Phishing Tools Made by SMK Graduate

JAKARTA - The United States has described the uncovering of this world-class phishing tool case as the first collaboration between the FBI and Polri. “This is the first collaboration between the FBI and Polri in an operation that dismantles phishing kits,” wrote the US Embassy to Indonesia on its official Instagram account, @usaembassyjkt, on Thursday (24/4/2026). The term “phishing kit” or “phishing tools” refers to digital devices or applications used to carry out such crimes. The suspects were arrested in Indonesia on 9 April 2026, while the FBI also tracked this phishing network in the US. Indonesian police arrested two individuals with initials GWL (24) and FYTP (25) in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. Director of Cybercrime at Bareskrim Polri, Brigadier General Himawan Bayu Aji, explained that GWL is the mastermind behind this phishing operation. “Suspect GWL (male, 24 years old) played the main role in producing, selling, and developing phishing tools independently since 2018,” said Himawan during a press conference at the Bareskrim Polri building in Jakarta on Wednesday (22/4/2026). According to Himawan, GWL has a background in SMK Multimedia education and developed his skills autodidactically to create various phishing scripts. He began producing the tools in 2017 before selling them widely in 2018. There are 22 types of phishing tools sold by GWL. In carrying out his actions, GWL created several websites such as wellstore.com, well.store, and well.shop, connected to the Telegram application as a medium for transactions and distribution of scripts to buyers. “The suspect used VPS (Virtual Private Server) services located abroad in running his business. The suspect also conducted automatic sales monitoring and provided technical support services for buyers of scripts who encountered issues,” explained Himawan. The sale of phishing tools generated Rp 25 billion.