Police impostor dupes man of Rp 10 million

Police impostor dupes man of Rp 10 million

JAKARTA (JP): City police detectives are searching for a man
who claimed to be a city police officer and swindled Rp 10
million (US$1,000) from an unsuspecting victim who wanted to get
his friends released from police detention.

City police chief of detectives Sr. Comr. Harry Montolalu
identified the victim only as Baasir, who received a call on his
cellular phone on Tuesday morning, and was duped of Rp 10
million, by a man claiming to be "Harry Montolalu".

"This is a serious, serious crime. A man had called Baasir on
his cellular phone. The man, claiming to be me, told Baasir that
if he wanted to get his friends released from police detention,
he should transfer Rp 10 million to an account in Bank Central
Asia (BCA)," Harry, who seemed angry, told reporters at city
police headquarters.

Harry said that nine of Baasir's friends, all truck drivers,
had been arrested late last week for alleged theft of several
tons of sugar in Pondok Kopi, East Jakarta.

"Baasir, unknowingly transferred the money on Tuesday morning
to an account in BCA's Bogor branch. The account is under the
name of a woman, identified as Fitri Handayani. We have no idea
whether this is a real or fake name."

City police detectives chief of violent crimes (Jatanras)
Comr. Tagam Sinaga said on Tuesday that the scam suspect had
already withdrawn the cash from BCA's Bogor branch, via an ATM.

"We'll arrest the suspect, using film from the video camera at
the ATM, which records the faces of people withdrawing cash. We
suspect that this person could either be an acquaintance of
Baasir himself, or a police officer," Tagam said on Tuesday.

Harry told reporters that he himself learned of this crime
because the man posing as Harry Montolalu had told Baasir, that
after the money was transferred, Baasir "should meet him at city
police headquarters."

"Baasir came here, asking to meet me. I met him, and he asked
me to release his friends. I was shocked. He told me he had paid
me Rp 10 million and that I must release his friends," Harry
said.

"He gave me the cellular phone number 'Harry' gave him. I
called that number, changed my voice, and asked if I was speaking
to Harry. That man said that he was 'Harry', and that he had
received the money."

Harry said that the police were investigating the case, and
promised to arrest the thief very soon.

"This has become a sick trend. Earlier, the same thing
happened to city police detectives chief for general crimes, Adj.
Sr. Comr. Tito Karnavian. Someone used his name, to dupe someone
else," Harry said.

In the same way, a man claiming to be Irian Jaya Police chief,
Brig. Gen. Made Mangku Pastika, was arrested in late February,
for allegedly attempting to trick mining company PT Freeport
Indonesia out of Rp 100 million.

The man, identified as Edy Margono, reportedly called a member
of Freeport's board of directors Prihadi Santoso at the company's
head office on Jl. Rasuna Said, South Jakarta, and introduced
himself as the Irian Jaya Police chief.

The 25-year-old Edy apparently told Prihadi that he needed Rp
100 million and wanted to borrow the money from the company, a
copper and gold producer which is a subsidiary of U.S. firm
Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. (ylt)