Why Does the Online Gambling Base in Hayam Wuruk Target Foreign Victims? Expert Explanation

Cyber security expert from Vaksincom, Alfons Tanujaya, explains why the online gambling headquarters located in Hayam Wuruk targets victims from abroad. He states that online scammers tend to use the same language as their victims. Therefore, the presence of many foreign nationals (WNA) arrested in Hayam Wuruk is strong evidence that the targeted victims are also foreigners. “Actually, the targets are foreigners; we see the majority (arrested) are Vietnamese, and there are people from mainland China. So the targets are there (Vietnam and China),” he said during the Kompas.com Newsroom Chat on Monday (11/5/2026). The same pattern is observed for victims from Indonesia. Many Indonesian citizens (WNI) working as online gambling workers are recruited in Cambodia. “So if, for example, you want to scam Indonesians, you’re unlikely to do it from Indonesia,” he added. Because the pattern is becoming increasingly clear, Alfons assesses that online gambling cybercrime is an internationally organised criminal act. “So today, if Indonesia successfully arrests and hands them over to the relevant countries, those countries owe us a favour. They must return the favour next time if people scamming with online gambling from Indonesia are to be seriously arrested,” he said. Regarding the targets of victims from the Hayam Wuruk online gambling base, it was revealed by the Director of General Criminal Acts of the National Police Criminal Investigation Agency, Brigadier General Wira Satya Triputra, during a press conference at the raid location in the Hayam Wuruk area, West Jakarta, on Saturday (9/5/2026). “For the victims so far, from our tracing results based on analysis, the victims are mostly foreign nationals,” he said. Then, on Sunday, the National Police announced that 320 of them are foreign nationals (WNA) and their detention was handed over to the Directorate General of Immigration of the Ministry of Immigration and Correctional Services (Kemenimipas). The 320 arrested WNA consist of 228 Vietnamese, 57 Chinese, 13 Myanmar, 11 Laotian, five Thai, three Malaysian, and three Cambodian nationals.