Officials lured by car scam

JAKARTA (JP): Many of the city's 265 subdistrict heads have received calls from unidentified parties asking the officials to send them Rp 3 million in exchange for a car, an official said on Monday.

City secretary Fauzi Bowo said the callers only identified themselves as officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The callers have so far enticed only two subdistricts heads into paying the "administrative fees", with both officials wiring between Rp 3 million and Rp 3.5 million into the callers' bank account. Fauzi, however, refused to name the officials.

"As of now, we still have not identified the callers."

"I've instructed all subdistrict heads here to immediately report such calls to security authorities in order to allow the latter to take rapid actions," he said.

He also reminded all city officials to thoroughly investigate any offer which sounded too good to be true.

Fauzi, however, did not say if the police had been contacted to trace the bank account of the group.

It is also unclear whether or not the two subdistrict heads who were victimized by the scam used funds from the city budget to pay for the promised cars.

Fauzi did not mention the type of cars offered by the callers.

Contacted separately by The Jakarta Post on Monday, the heads of the Rawamangun and Cakung Timur subdistricts in East Jakarta admitted receiving similar offers.

The subdistrict head of Rawamangun, Kholid, said that he received a phone call on Friday offering him a car if he paid a Rp 3 million administrative fee.

"The caller identified himself as the head of the administrative affairs bureau of the Pulogadung district (which oversees Rawamangun)."

"However, I didn't believe his offer; I could feel that he was lying," Kholid said.

Daeng Husein Umar, subdistrict head of Cakung Timur, received a similar phone call a few days before last week's Idul Fitri holiday.

"The man promised to come and pick up the money but he failed to show up," he said. (ind)