Student prosecuted for cyber crime
Asip Agus Hasani, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta
Petrus Pangkur, a 22-year-old student at Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta, probably never expected to face court proceedings when last year at an Internet cafe here, he ordered a helmet and glove from an American company's homepage using someone else's credit card number that he picked up from a website.
It just seemed so simple, ordering things over the Internet with two credit card numbers that were not his own. All he had to do was type in the numbers and follow the verification process after selecting an item.
It only began to dawn on him that maybe he had made a mistake five days later, when he was notified by the Yogyakarta office of U.S.-based courier service UPS that he had a package from the United States. After signing the administrative forms at the UPS branch office, he was arrested by police officers who were waiting for him.
"I wasn't really serious," Petrus repeatedly told the judges at the Sleman District Court last Friday, during the second hearing of his trial. It is the first time in the country that a person has been tried for this type of cyber crime.
Prosecutors have charged Petrus with violating Article 363 of the Criminal Code on theft and Article 378 of the Criminal Code on deception. The articles carry maximum prison sentences of seven years and four years, respectively.
Petrus came to Yogyakarta three years ago from Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, to continue his studies. The Internet was new to him, and after about a year in Yogyakarta he began to visit Internet cafes.
At first he just visited chatrooms and surfed different websites. But he soon realized the Internet could be used for other activities, as conversations about ordering goods using credit card numbers belonging to people overseas were common among university students, including his friends at his boardinghouse.
It was from talking to his friends that he learned about websites where you could obtain such credit card numbers.
So on March 3 last year, Petrus ordered a helmet and a glove, costing a total of US$365.93, from www.agv.com, the homepage of Alabama-based AGV Inc., using two fraudulent credit card numbers.
"He is only an amateur `carder' who worked alone. He did not use a false name or a false address. And he didn't send a friend to pick up the package," Information Technology (IT) expert Roy Suryo, who was testifying as an expert witness, said during Friday's hearing.
In an interview with The Jakarta Post following the hearing, Roy said professional "Internet carders" worked in teams using systems meant to make it difficult for the police to trace them.
"They usually ask that the things they order be sent to at least two different addresses before the goods reach the final address... They also never used their real names.
"Thus the goods they order can be on their way to their final destination for several months, by which time the documents in the Internet Protocol that recorded the transaction of the 'carders' have been automatically erased.
"So if they were caught by the police, there would not be enough evidence to send them to court," Roy said.
Roy said he was sorry to see an amateur like Petrus facing trial when so many professional cyber criminals were still free.
He estimated that professional carders caused at least Rp 500 million (US$55,555) in losses to companies with commercial websites.
A computer expert who asked not to be named told the Post that professional Internet carders were helped by people in courier service companies, and even by police officers.
A professional carder here can build a Harley Davidson motorcycle by ordering spare parts piece by piece, the source said. But he added that it would be impossible to do this without some help.
Yogyakarta is among the five Indonesian cities where the majority of cyber crimes in the country occur, including "hacking" and "cracking". However, the police have a difficult time fighting this type of crime because of a lack of knowledge and equipment.
"Our KUHP (Criminal Code) can't deal with cyber crimes, so judges will only accept conventional legal evidence such as in Petrus' case. This is silly," Roy said.
The Indonesian police, who have been widely criticized by developed countries, particularly the United States, for failing to deal with cyber crime, may be making Petrus an example who can be held up to these critics.
"In Petrus' case, we caught him red-handed and we have almost everything required by the court, including a legal complaint from AGV Inc. stating that the company suffered a financial loss from the cyber crime committed by Petrus," Comr. Didi Yasmin of the Yogyakarta Police said.