Jakarta, Indonesia Sentinel — Jakarta’s Metro Police have uncovered a video call sex (VCS) scams operated by two siblings to extort money from unsuspecting victims. Authorities said the scheme earned the suspects up to Rp100 million (roughly $6,300).
AKBP Herman Edco Wijaya Simbolon, head of Subdirectorate IV of the Cyber Crime Directorate at Metro Jaya Police said that the scams were known as sextortion.
“This was an online extortion crime, commonly known as sextortion, involving threats to distribute explicit or intimate content,” said Edco, during a press briefing on Tuesday (May 6).
The suspects allegedly posed as women on the Bigo Live app, creating enticing accounts to lure in victims. Once contact was established, they moved conversations to the encrypted messaging platform Telegram and gradually persuaded victims to engage in private and intimate video calls.
During these calls, the suspects used pre-recorded videos of women engaged in explicit acts, projected through another phone to trick victims into believing they were speaking live with a woman. The suspect then lured the victims to show their intimate parts.
Unbeknownst to the victims, the suspects secretly recorded the video sessions. The recordings were then used to blackmail the victims, with threats to share the content with family members or friends if the victims did not pay the demanded sums.
“Before targeting victims, the perpetrators had already profiled them,” Edco explained.
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Following an investigation, police arrested one of the VCS scams suspects, identified by the initials MD (25), in Palembang, South Sumatra. His older brother and alleged accomplice, I (27), remains at large.
MD was reportedly responsible for creating the Bigo Live and Telegram accounts used in the operation, managing extortion efforts, and collecting the illicit funds. Investigators believe the duo had been running the operation since early 2024.
“Based on the suspect’s confession, they made around Rp100 million, which was used for daily living expenses,” said Edco.
MD has been officially named a suspect and is in police custody. He faces charges under Article 45(10) in conjunction with Article 27B(2) of Indonesia’s amended Information and Electronic Transactions Law (Law No. 1 of 2024).
Authorities are continuing their search for I, who was not at the scene during MD’s arrest. “We are conducting further investigations, as the wanted suspect was not present at the time of the arrest,” Edco concluded.
(Raidi/Agung)
