Recovery of Funds from Financial Scams Depends on Reporting Time

The Anti-Illegal Financial Activities Task Force recorded 1,300 reports of fraudulent financial transactions on Monday, 6 July 2026. However, officials noted that most of these reports were submitted too late. Aditya Mahendra, a senior manager at the task force, explained during an online discussion that the reports were received by the Indonesia Anti-Scam Centre (IASC), a national coordination forum established by the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and the task force to handle financial transaction fraud. The IASC is responsible for blocking accounts used by perpetrators and facilitating the return of funds. According to Aditya, the majority of the 1,300 complaints received that day were filed 12 hours after the incident occurred. He stressed that reporting speed is crucial, as fraudsters can transfer funds to various payment instruments within minutes, including not only bank accounts but also virtual accounts, digital wallets, and cryptocurrency. Regarding the blocking process, Aditya noted that the IASC’s current methods are still conventional. He expressed hope that the centre would soon implement automated blocking to reduce the time needed to trace the flow of funds. Even when accounts are blocked, perpetrators can continue their illegal activities due to the practice of buying and selling bank accounts. This practice persists because individuals are lured by promises of rewards in exchange for opening accounts and handing them over to others. This presents a further challenge for the IASC in tracing funds, as fraudsters use other people’s identities for the accounts involved. Aditya reported that the IASC has returned a total of Rp196 billion from 579,000 reports during the May-June 2026 period, an increase from the Rp161 billion returned in January. The five most common fraud schemes are online shopping scams, impersonation, investment fraud, and job scams. By region, Java recorded the highest number of reports, with 404,000 complaints.