Setting the Crooked Record Straight
Some foreigners are involved in hypnotism scams in Indonesia, but the media should not be too hasty to blame Singaporeans. Two weeks ago, this column reported on the case of a scammer who posed as a...
View ArticleUAE Boxing Coach Scammed in Jakarta
The Asian Games were a great success, marred only by a few scandals and controversies, including a Palestinian expatriate scamming a visiting boxing coach in a nightlife area. The recent Asian Games...
View ArticleMagic Money Boxes and Jenglot
Conmen are still tricking gullible people into believing that money can be magically increased by mystical and mythical objects. The government is this year spending about US$30 billion on education,...
View ArticlePhony Breast Cancer Doctor Jailed
Staying healthy in Indonesia is hard enough without being exposed to quackery. A court in Bali has jailed a bogus doctor, who fraudulently treated a woman suffering from breast cancer. It was at a...
View ArticleNatural Disaster Fraud
Natural disasters can bring out the worst in a handful of people. After the September 28 earthquake and tsunami that killed an estimated 5,000 people in Central Sulawesi and left about 70,000 homeless,...
View ArticleSextortion Scam Uses Hacked Passwords
Indonesia continues to block pornographic websites, but people living here continue to view them, putting themselves at risk of a sextortion scam. In recent weeks, a few of my friends have received...
View ArticleBlessing Scammers Busted in Bali
Yet again, professional scammers are being mislabelled as hypnotists. Police in Bali have arrested a gang of seven scammers, including three Chinese nationals, who tricked elderly ethnic Chinese women...
View ArticleArrested Playwright Duped by Fool’s Gold
A troubled dramatist has fallen victim to a scam involving idiotic claims about the secret gold of an Indonesian king. When I first encountered playwright and actress Ratna Sarumpaet in early 1998, she...
View ArticleKing Con Convicted Again, Gets No Prison Time
Remember Dimas Kanjeng, the murderous conman who pretended he could create money out of thin air? He was convicted of fraud this month, but received no sentence because of a legal technicality. The...
View ArticleBali Getting Tougher on Fugitives
The resort island used to be a paradise for foreigners fleeing legal problems, but the risk of deportation is rising. In days of yore, what was a person to do when wanted by police in the United...
View Article