Police, Internet industry join forces to stop cyberfraud
Police, Internet industry join forces to stop cyberfraud
Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Alarmed by the rise in cyberfraud, which has seriously tainted
Indonesia's image in the global Web community, the National
Police and Internet industry players have agreed to join forces
to crack down on the crime.
Heru Nugroho, the secretary-general of the Indonesian Internet
Service Providers Association (APJII), said on Monday that the
association and the police would soon set up a special task force
to combat the crime.
Heru said the rise in cyberfraud in Indonesia over the past
couple of years had not only sparked an international outcry but
also caused fears that it would eventually harm the country's
nascent Internet industry.
"The International community could block an IP (Internet
Protocol) number from Indonesia out of fear of cyberfraud. In
which case, people would not be interested to use the Internet as
they would not be able to surf freely," he added.
While it is too early to disseminate details on the task
force, Heru said that it would include players in the Internet
industry, such as the Association of Indonesian Internet Cafes
(Awari), legal advisors and government agencies.
Cyberfraud happens when a carder, a popular term known among
the industry for perpetrators of cyberfraud, conducts a
transaction with online merchants using other people's credit
card numbers.
They can obtain millions of credit card numbers by penetrating
a merchant's database. They usually conduct the transactions at
Internet cafes to avoid being traced.
Not only does cyberfraud or carding inflict losses on the
cardholders, but also the merchants, merchants' banks and card
issuers.
Sr. Commr. Dewa Bagus Made Suharya, the head of the
information technology crime division at National Police
Headquarters, said the police considered cyberfraud a serious
crime, which needs special action.
"Cyberfraud is no different from any other crime. There will
be punishment for it," he said.
According to the police's IT crime division, since its
establishment in 2001, they have received as many as 104 reports
on cyberfraud.
While he said he could not give out any details, Dewa noted
that a cyberfraud transaction ranges between US$100 and $13,000.
The concern over rising cyberfraud is not baseless. Recent
research by Texas-based security company ClearCommerce ranked
Indonesia second after the Ukraine for cyberfraud.
The research, conducted from mid-2000 until the end of 2001,
and involving 1,137 merchants, six million transactions and
40,000 customers, revealed that 20 percent of the total number of
credit card transactions on the Internet in Indonesia were
cyberfraud.
Further, Heru added that cyberfraud had also inflicted losses
on people who honestly wanted to do online transactions as they
would be rejected by merchants.
He said for the past two years more and more online merchants
were blockading IP numbers from Indonesia and even rejecting
online transactions to and from Indonesia.
Dewa said that the police had identified Yogyakarta, Semarang,
Bandung and Jakarta as safe havens for cyberfraud. Syndicates are
suspected to be thriving in Indonesia.
He said that legal action against carders was still lenient as
cybercrime is an alien area for law enforcers.
In Indonesia, Dewa said, only Yogyakarta was ready to start
legal proceedings against arrested carders.
In addition, the police is moving to develop investigation
tools to support cybercrime investigations, such as using
technology to turn digital data into court evidence.