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 Tagam Sinaga said on Tuesday that the scam suspect had already withdrawn the cash from BCA's Bogor branch, via an ATM.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)