West Jakarta Authority Investigates Suspected Fictitious Recruitment Site

The West Jakarta Manpower, Transmigration and Energy Agency (Sudin Nakertransgi) conducted an initial inspection on Wednesday of a location suspected of being a site for a fictitious job recruitment scam in the Pangeran Tubagus Angke shop house complex. Agency head Faradiva Saforda stated that the inspection did not uncover any indication of the fraudulent job vacancy due to a lack of detailed information regarding the company’s name and address in the initial reports. “It is not a case of a wrong address. We are looking for a definite location. Because the circulated news did not include a clear company name, we had to search one by one in the area for something similar to the job offer,” Faradiva said. Instead of finding the company suspected of spreading the fake vacancy, PT Kemas Paket Andalan Express, as per data in an invitation letter recently sent by a victim, the agency team ended up visiting a different company within the same shop house complex. “Our inspection was not here (PT Kemas Paket) because we did not know. We entered a different company, not PT Kemas Paket. So the locus was not there,” he explained. Although the initial inspection was fruitless, the agency will immediately conduct a follow-up investigation, now equipped with more concrete information from the applicants who fell victim to the alleged scam. “It will be followed up immediately,” Faradiva said. The alleged recruitment fraud came to light after claiming several victims in the West Jakarta area. The perpetrators’ modus operandi involved inviting applicants for a job interview and promising attractive facilities, but then asking for a sum of money before they could start work. One victim, 18-year-old Jieyes Mishael Panjaitan, reported feeling cheated after making a payment of Rp2.5 million. The man, who travelled from Purwakarta, said he received the job vacancy information from an online platform about a week prior. “Not long after, the owner of the company chatted with me and invited me for an interview. I came here, waited a long time, and then was called upstairs,” Mishael said. During the interview for a warehouse operator position, Mishael was asked to pay Rp2.5 million, ostensibly for initial costs including a medical check-up (MCU) and a uniform. After his brother-in-law transferred the money, a contract letter was prepared and photographed, but Mishael was rushed and not allowed to read it properly. He signed the agreement after the transaction was completed. However, the medical check-up and uniform fitting did not take place immediately, and he was told to go home without any certainty about when the MCU would occur or the location and start date of the job. “On the way home, I felt something was off. They said they would do a health check and get a uniform, but I wasn’t given anything. I was just told to go home,” he said. Sensing irregularities, Mishael returned to the company’s location in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, but was prevented from entering by a security guard. “The security guard wouldn’t let me in. When I said I wanted to ask for the address, he blocked me,” Mishael recounted. Believing he had been scammed, he subsequently reported the incident to his family.