Indonesian authorities deported to China 153 Chinese citizens involved in an online love fraud scheme that raised $1.3 million (€1.2 million), it was announced this Friday.
“They are part of a network that commits crimes in Indonesia, but targets victims of Chinese origin,” said Subki Miuldi, director of the immigration office in the city of Batam, where the deportations took place on Wednesday, according to a release.
The deportees violated article 75 of the Indonesian immigration law, the same note states, highlighting the importance of “cooperation with the community in the transmission of information” to “maintain the stability and security of the country.”
The victims were also Chinese citizens, hundreds of them, according to the investigation, contacted and seduced by female members of the organization through video calls, and then extorted with sexually explicit recordings, reported the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post.
According to the police investigation, the organization began operating this year from Indonesia, where it entered on tourist visas, after Beijing authorities dismantled the network in China.
In 2017, Indonesia detained and deported 416 Chinese and Taiwanese citizens who belonged to a telephone and online investment fraud ring, and two years later it detained and returned to China 85 citizens involved in a similar case.
Source: TSF
