A Complicated Story about Police Officers Killing Each Other

 (Warning: References of violence ahead)

 

            Police brutality. Quite frankly, this topic is already a common discussion among the people who are at least quite aware of the problems plaguing the law enforcement institution. But most of the time, especially in recent times, every instance of police brutality always involving police-on-civilians violence. This sentiment, in several countries like the United States, are amplified as part of the progressive movement demanding that the police institution should be abolished altogether. But what I'm about to tell you in this piece will turn your perspectives about this matter upside down.

 

            Many of you, until this very day are quite unfamiliar with police-on-police violence when it comes to cases of this caliber. But believe it or not, the Indonesian Police Force were shocked to its core when this case was unearthed. It all starts on the 8th of July 2022, at Duren Tiga, South Jakarta, when the public was shocked by the death of Police Brigadier Noviansyah Joshua Hutabarat, where his cause death at the time was gunshot wounds due to a shootout. Brigadier Hutabarat was the aide/bodyguard for the then Head of Internal Affairs of The Indonesian Police Force, Inspector General Ferdy Sambo. The address in question was Sambo's work residence. The suspects, by the time of the revelation, were Second Patrolman Richard Eliezer Pudihang Lumiu, and Brigadier Ricky Rizal, both of which were also aide of Sambo's. 

 

            The story at the time, at least by Sambo's perspective, was triggered by an alleged sexual harassment done by the late Brigadier Joshua towards Sambo's wife. That incident caught the attention of Second Patrolman Eliezer. By the time the suspect reached the source of the incident, Joshua allegedly opened fire, triggering a shootout. It has been said that Joshua was killed during said shootout. At first, this story was amplified as part of the narration that Sambo was forced to kill his own aide for self-defense and to preserve his family honor. But there are some irregularities in those statements, particularly those said by people inside Sambo's circle, like his personal driver Kuat Ma'aruf, his own wife Putri Candrawathi, and Brigadier Rizal. Suspicions arose when Patrolman Eliezer, said to have several wounds of his own, came to public bearing no wounds at all. The family of the late Brigadier Joshua also notice some irregularities, particularly towards the deceased's body, full of several wounds, both gunshot and some knife and defensive wounds. The family then, with the aid of Kamaruddin Simanjuntak, their lawyer filed a report alleging that the case was in fact a premeditated murder. This then prompted The Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo to form an investigation team due to these irregularities. 

 

            By this point, Eliezer was the sole suspect for the murder. But when you look inside the hierarchy of the Police Force itself, there are several discrepancies when it comes to rankings within the force. First of all, Sambo, being the Inspector General, is considered to be one of several high-ranking officers with substantial amount of power of influence. Brigadiers like the late Joshua and Rizal sits somewhere at the middle, both obtained their rankings via regional police schools. Eliezer, on the other hand, sits at the lowest ranking possible, being Second Patrolman. As a result, whenever someone of higher ranking needs him to do whatever, he has to oblige, no questions asked. 

 

            It seems like Private Eliezer was going to be the scapegoat for the case, as several of the statements placed him as the one who fired the fatal blow to his higher-ranked senior. But with the help of his legal team, as well as the cooperation with the Investigation Team, Eliezer singlehandedly turned the tables on its head, revealing key evidences that not only would be proven beneficial come the trial stages, but also sealed Sambo, and his circle's fates down the line. What he did was putting out statements completely opposite to that of Sambo's by saying that instead of a shootout, late Brigadier Joshua was executed by Sambo and his entourage. With this fact unearthed, Sambo and his team scrambled to change the narrative, by again playing the sexual harassment card, saying that Putri was molested by the late brigadier, which triggered Sambo's anger and then placed the burden of executing him to Eliezer. All statements by Sambo were proven false after a lengthy investigation, as Eliezer's recounts are proven to be the most accurate. As a result, he was stripped of his position and was ordered a dishonorable discharge by the Internal Affairs Court. At that point, Ferdy Sambo, Putri Candrawathi, and Kuat Ma'aruf were all pronounced as suspects for the murder, along with Eliezer and Rizal.

 

            What really happened was all aides are ordered to be present at Duren Tiga. The plot to kill Joshua was prepared by Sambo and his team since even before that day, with Sambo promising several rewards like money, new smartphones, and legal immunity. Initially, Sambo gave the kill order to Eliezer, who proceeded to fire several shots towards Joshua after being tortured first. Noticing his faint movement, Sambo then took it upon himself to administer the killing blow to the back of Joshua's head. Then they would cook up the story of a fake shootout to amass sympathy to the public. This involved Sambo firing at random locations to perceive the crime scene as the place where a shootout took place. The case itself was not revealed until three days later, giving them a window to produce such narratives. The oddities didn't stop there, in fact, the CCTVs inside Sambo's residence were all damaged, suggesting that there is an attempt of tampering/damaging the evidence. Lastly, everybody's statements conflict with each other.

 

            With the evidence finally complete, the case proceeded to the trial stages. While Eliezer kept his composure as he explained the recount of the incident word-by word, Sambo, Putri, Rizal and Kuat Ma'aruf gave conflicting, blabbering and nonsensical statements. More twists and turns unearthed, and finally, Eliezer's fate was sealed as his plea deal to be included as a justice collaborator was granted by the court. In the end, 5 people had their lives changed forever, one of them for the worst. Eliezer was given a 1 year and 6 months jail sentence, lighter than the prosecutor's charge of 12 years. Brigadier Ricky Rizal was given a 13-year incarceration, while Kuat Ma'aruf and Putri Candrawathi got 15 years and 20 years respectively. All of which is heavier than the prosecutor's charge. But in the end, Ferdy Sambo took the heaviest punishment of all. Initially being charged with a life imprisonment, he was instead given the death sentence, owning to the fact that all 5 parties involved participated in a conspiracy to commit a premeditated murder, with Sambo also found guilty of obstruction of justice by tampering the evidence and alleged cover up of the murder, not to mention their attempted defaming of the late Brigadier by producing the sexual harassment claim, which only to be found false due to the lack of evidence.

 

            Since the 2004 Munir case and the Kanjuruhan Stadium Stampede, this is the latest high-profile case that gripped the entire nation, as well as a sour reminder that since the fall of Soeharto and the New Order, the Indonesian police force is still a bit untrustworthy at times. This case not only served as a reminder that humans can go as low as they can be to achieve power and influence, but also sobering fact that even fellow police officers are not safe from their own peers. 

Scambaiting: Online Vigilantism Done Right

                 I have to admit, almost all of my true crime stories posted in this blog are about some of the grisliest cases the humanity has ever seen. Some are real tearjerkers; others make the readers go seething mad. But what makes those stories common are it focuses on particular individuals doing what the others describe as the most depraved behavior a human being can commit. And in this one, for the first time ever, I am not focusing on a certain case or an individual, but a country and a series of organized criminal activity that is so common it became an industry in and on itself.

 

            First of all, what are the first thing that come across your mind when I mention the country of India? For movie maniacs, Bollywood sprung up to mind, as this industry is basically India's pride and joy. Many actors, actresses, and celebrities we all came to know, and love came from this Indian equivalent of Hollywood, California. Some might say their cuisine, which is perhaps the most rich and vibrant cuisine in the world. I can't resist a good plate of curry when I see one. In fact, I recently came across an Indian restaurant here in Jakarta, and they serve the best butter chicken in town. 

 

            Unfortunately, those two are not what this piece is about. This one is about an underground industry, probably the biggest one in India, which specialize themselves as online call center scams. Yes. For the first time ever, I'm writing a true crime story about a fraud case of some sort. This one is about taking advantage of others posing as a tech support officer for major companies. But why online scams are heavily connected to India? Other countries could be on the same shady industry as this one, right? The reality is most of these scams involving someone with an Indian accent, and thanks to India's outsourcing boom during the early 2000s, most of us associate Indian workforce, or at least most of them, as those who are typically employed at some call centers for major companies, mostly for tech support. When the outsourcing market began to shift outside India, some who still in the business began setting up several call centers, real or fake as the means of extension for their companies. And this is where the online scam industry began to prosper in places such as Gurgaon, Calcutta, Bangalore, or even the country's capital of New Delhi. 

 

            These call center scammers have their own modus of operandi, but they basically have the same premises, by posing as tech support officers in order to scam as many people as they can. And their victimology (sorry for the Criminal Minds reference there) is what makes my blood boil. They typically target overseas victims, mostly in either United States, Great Britain, or Australia, and predominately targets either senior citizen (age 65 and up. Sometimes, the scammer would hit a jackpot if the victim in question is suffering from a debilitating condition like dementia) or those who are technologically gullible. The way the scam is run is by posting fake ads, fake notifications or send bogus emails to the target, posing it as an official email from either Microsoft, Amazon, Norton, or other similar companies. The victim is required to call a tech support contact number inside those emails (which turns out to be the scammers'), and once connected, they are required by the scammers to install a remote sharing software (like AnyDesk or TeamViewer). This is one way for the scammers to gain access to their victim's computer and all the data stored inside it. 

 

            And from here, the story varies depending on the scammer's mode. It can be for a refund request, subscription cancellation, tech support, or purchases. Many of which involves the scammers promising refunds to the victims and gaining their trust, only for the victims to give all of their sensitive information, like credit card numbers, social security numbers, or even their bank access. From here, the scammers would guide their victims for their "refund" only to discover that the victim had put the wrong amount (in fact, it was the scammers who did this by taking control of their computers in the first place) and had to transfer the excess back to the scammers. The truth is, there is no such thing as excess refund, and the victims are tricked to believe it. And for the magnum opus, the victims are offered to pay the scammers using three ways: Ask them (read: force them) to withdraw cash from the nearest ATM and send the money to a specific address, wire online transfer or gift cards. For cash deliveries, those address the scammer claimed as the "support offices" is actually an address to a money mule planted somewhere around the country, be it US or UK. When the money mule receives the money, they took 20% off the scam money and ship the rest back to India.

 

            It is estimated that this industry averages around US$ 1.000.000 to a whopping 18.000.000 a year. And all of this is achieved by draining unsuspecting victims' bank account, sometimes in the long run. The data extracted from the victims can be used by scammers to illegally purchase things that would benefit themselves and costing the victims more as it goes on. And by the time the victims realized that they are being scammed, it was all a second too late. And believe it or not, there are hierarchies to this business too. For starters, inside a call center scams, the call is received by an initiator, who by themselves alone, could make as big as US$ 7.000 a day. Once trust had been established, then the call is transferred to the "closer" who will "guide" the victims through the process of actually draining their savings without them noticing one bit. If the money is being transferred via a money mule, the mule would take 20% off the money that they fraudulently acquired and send the rest to their boss in India. 

 

            Despite the efforts to shut down these illegal activities, scam call centers continue to prosper due to corruption and the subsequent neglect by the Indian authorities, which is why, there is a phenomenon on the Internet, about some people who dedicated themselves to stop scammers with the art of scambaiting. As the name suggests, these people posed themselves as a potential victim, and proceed to wreak havoc on the scammers themselves. A lot of these scam baiters uses softwares like spoof bank accounts, virtual computers, voice changers, as well as the scammers' own techniques to deceive the scammers. Often times, making them susceptible to embarrassing information. Other scam baiters used their connection to the scammers to hack into the system and proceeded to expose them online by streaming their activities. This is typically accompanied with the deletion of the scammer's files, and in some extreme cases, planted the scammer's computer, and sometimes the entire server system with computer viruses or malwares, practically destroyed their system. If the scammer in question has a money mule, they would go and intercept the packages with the help of the freight couriers and law enforcements and confront the money mule face to face. 

 

            But this is not the limitations when it comes to scam baiters roaming around online. By tapping into the scammer's database, as shown on several YouTube channels like Scammer Payback or Trilogy Media, the baiters are able to intercept the calls from the victims to the scammers and redirected them to the baiters instead. Once the connection is established, the baiters then explain the situation to the victim and warn them for the potential scam should they go ahead with the scammer. Others, like a Northern Irishman who goes by the name of "Jim Browning" went as far as hacking into some scam call centers' security systems and spying on them, while doing what he does best, exposing and shutting down scam calls after scam calls. One of such instances, while collaborating with fellow YouTube personality, India-based Kiwi Karl Rock, with the aid of BBC's documentary program Panorama, resulted in a police raid and multiple arrests of one of the call centers Browning was spying on. Their channels, aside from providing us with quality content, could also serve as an education on online safety and how to recognize a potential online fraud. 

 

            In the end, no one wished that they would get scammed. I don't want to wish it to my worst enemies either. But what these people have done is robbing the victims of their savings, and consequently, their will to live. These scam baiters are doing everything they can to put a stop to this fraud, although temporarily. But as time goes on, the scammers might shut down for good. And for that reason and that reason only, scambaiting is the online vigilantism that I endorse wholeheartedly.