Police see growing trend in identity theft

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta Police Chief warned the public on Tuesday of the danger of identity theft in the wake of the arrests of three people last Friday on suspicion of fraud involving counterfeit identity cards and bank documents.

Police said the suspects, identified Ardi Amri, 21, Ambo Dale, 22, and Ibnu Amin, 27, were captured in Pulomas, East Jakarta, when they tried to withdraw Rp 50,000,000 from a Bank Nasional Indonesia (BNI) automatic teller machine (ATM) at Atrium Senen, Central Jakarta, using fake ATM cards under the names of government officials and businesspeople.

The three suspects are being charged with counterfeiting legal documents.

Police seized 14 fake family cards, 54 bogus identity cards, 110 savings account books and 114 ATM cards from various private and government banks that were issued on the basis of the counterfeited documents, as well as Rp 50,000,000 in cash, at the suspect's rented house in Jalan Cipinang Elok II, East Jakarta.

Police also confiscated 393 sweepstakes coupons from Pepsodent, Silver Queen, and Indomilk, which they suspect were being used to gather information in order to produce more counterfeit documents, as well as a Nokia 9210i cell phone with SIM card number 081510179997.

The head of criminal detectives, Sr. Comr. Mathius Salempang, said that the suspects were believed to be part of a larger group that have been involved in identity theft, counterfeiting and fraud since 2002. Five other suspects remain at large.

The City Police Chief, Firman Gani, told reporters on Tuesday that, "I think this is an important lesson for the public, especially businessmen and public officials. They should watch out for any possibility that people are using their names or authority to obtain money fraudulently."

He warned the public not to give out personal information or let other people have access to their identification cards or other documents that could be counterfeited or used for fraudulent purposes.

Firman also appealed to subdistrict officials to be more careful in issuing ID cards, and for bank workers to be more vigilant in opening new accounts.

"If someone wants to open a new bank account, be sure to check their identity cards very carefully. The counterfeit ID cards we confiscated had different issuance stamps on either side," explained Firman.