"The perpetrators usually persuade the victim to hit the like and subscribe buttons for digital content, such as content on YouTube," the task force's secretary, Hudiyanto, said in an official statement released on Saturday.
"Through these activities, victims (are told they) will receive payment with certain figure," he added.
After the victims are lured by the promise of payment at the start of the activity, they are persuaded to do another task with the condition being that they make a deposit first to get a bigger reward.
The perpetrators promise that the funds that victims deposit will be returned at a later date, but after the victims make the deposit, the perpetrators run away and go out of contact.
"The eradication of illegal activity offers requires the support from the people, namely in the form of cautiousness and wariness in receiving offers from irresponsible parties," he said.
The government task force, which comprises the Financial Services Authority (OJK), the Trade Ministry, Bank Indonesia, the state police, and the Financial Reporting and Transaction Center (PPATK), expects that the people will always consider two important aspects when using a site or application that offers trade and financial services.
These important aspects comprise legality and logic.
Legality means ensuring that the product or service being offered has the correct business license from the authority or institution that monitors it.
"Logic means always considering whether the result or benefit on offer makes sense or not," he explained.
From April to June 2023, the task force detected 352 illegal online loan platforms and 77 content offering illegal online loans on Facebook and Instagram.
"Based on this, the task force has coordinated with the Communication and Information Ministry to block these platforms to reduce the opportunities for fraudsters to deceive the public," he informed.
If the people come across dubious or allegedly illegal investments or online loans, they can report them to the OJK's Consumer Service 157 via the phone number (021) 157 and email addresses konsumen@ojk.go.id or waspadainvestasi@ojk.go.id.
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Translator: Sanya Dinda S, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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