All is (un)fair in the name of scam game
Written by Siti Fatimah Ayuningdyah | Read in Indonesian
Lately, the name Indra Kenz seemed to be everywhere. The 25-year-old content creator – whose real name is Indra Kesuma – has been active on YouTube since 2019. Until early 2022, he had amassed a significant number of followers, though was largely unknown to the general public.
It was not until the National Police's Criminal Investigation Unit (Bareskrim) named him a suspect in a case related to the binary option trading platform Binomo in February 2022 that his name and case garnered nation-wide attention.
He allegedly committed a crime of online gambling and the spread of false news through electronic media, which could get him prison time of up to 20 years for multiple charges. At the same time, it has been made public that much of his assets have been confiscated by the police.
Such a shocking plot twist for someone who merely months prior was known as a “crazy rich” figure. His victims reportedly suffered a total accumulated loss of Rp44 billion. This leaves one wonder how such a young man with not much previous investment experience managed to convince so many people and gathered such an astronomical amount of money in such a short amount of time.
It turns out, flexing was all it took.
Back in January, he appeared on a television programme and showed off his wealth, to the amusement of the studio audience. Then, Kenz said he once bought an electric car for more than Rp1.9 billion ($180,000) at 3 a.m. because he could not sleep, and purchased a $30,000 T-shirt, which he considered "very cheap". The kind of affluence he showcased proved to be inspiring to a lot of people.
Thousands of Indonesians started binary options trading on an “investment platform” called Binomo after watching Kenz's YouTube videos. In the videos, Kenz appeared to be making tens of millions of rupiahs in just minutes. His “results” were supported and validated by his social media posts with the various luxury goods he flaunted. Kenz was a “mentor” for the app, and he supposedly earned a cut from those who signed up using his affiliate code.
Such influence and notoriety are why his very rapid and very public downfall was a major wake-up call for the public. Things definitely are not always what they seem on social media.
Flexing – a.k.a. flaunting your wealth – is so prevalent today that not only it is now a social media content genre, but an industry as well (rentable fake private jet, anyone?). People aspire to be rich, and while they are not there yet, they will fake it until they make it.
Some people may want to take a shortcut to become and appear affluent through whatever means necessary, from heavy-handed Photoshopping to renting luxury goods, services and venues, or even —driven by insecurity, narcissism or gullibility— pyramid schemes and criminal frauds.
This does not only happen in Indonesia, as shown in the case of Mr. Tinder Swindler himself, Simon Leviev – born Shimon Hayut – who pretended to be a diamond empire heir and swindled money out of his victims.
Victims believed him due to his social media and dating app persona, in which he can be seen flaunting luxury goods from private jets to cars and watches, and basically living the life of the wealthy.
Recently, the American Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that “more than one in four people who reported losing money to fraud in 2021 said it started on social media with an ad, a post, or a message” and that “data suggests that social media was far more profitable to scammers in 2021 than any other method of reaching people”.
According to the FTC's report, losses to frauds initiated on social media account for about 25% of all reported losses to fraud in 2021 and represent an 18-fold increase over 2017 reported losses in the US.
In Indonesia, however, the most common online scam is e-commerce fraud (19%), followed by social media scam (16%) and online investment (9%).
Social media is such an appealing scamming tool because it is a relatively low-cost way to reach many people from all over the world. It is also much easier to manufacture a fake persona on social media and use the tools available to advertisers on social media platforms to systematically target people with bogus ads based on personal details, such as their age, interests and past purchases.
Another area that experienced a massive surge in 2021 is fake crypto-investments. The FTC wrote that “scammers use social media platforms to promote bogus investment opportunities, and even to connect with people directly as supposed friends to encourage them to invest. People send money, often cryptocurrency, on promises of huge returns, but end up empty handed”.
The second most profitable fraud? Romance scams, as showcased by Simon Leviev. Usually, such scams start with a seemingly innocent friend request from a stranger, followed by chats and, inevitably, a request for money.
A respondent TFR interviewed shared a scam story that happened to her late mother, who at the time struck an online friendship with a stranger she met on Facebook. After chatting for some time, the stranger claimed to want to send her a huge amount of money – with a catch. Before the money could be released, there were taxes to be paid, so the stranger asked the respondent’s mother to pay the taxes for him first.
Long story short, her mother lost Rp180 million of her pension money to the scammer. The respondent continued, “My mom was so prone to such scams, most probably because she was lonely as she had so many online friends.”
While investment and romance scams lead the way in terms of the amount of money lost, the largest number of reports came from people who said they were scammed when buying something they saw marketed on social media.
Interestingly, when asked to identify a specific social media platform in their reports of undelivered goods, nearly 9 out of 10 named Facebook or Instagram.
In fact, there are scams tailored to fit how we usually use social media, such as fake celebrities asking for money or online quizzes used to collect personal data. There are warning signs we have to look out for. For example, posts and ads that offer super low prices/free trials on popular name-brand goods; If a claim seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Next, posts that direct you to another website to claim a prize, take a quiz, fill out a survey, or watch a video. Lastly, posts from contacts who suddenly are not using their original accounts and ask for money. Most likely they are not who they claim they are.
Still, as prevalent online scams are, there are ways we can protect ourselves. Those include limiting who can see our posts and information on social media, opting out of targeted advertising, using unique usernames and passwords for each profile, regularly changing passwords, minimising the exposure of personal information on our profiles and only accepting people to our network that we know or have met, as opposed to friends of friends and strangers.
One last thing to note, these scams are very dynamic and ever-changing. Best to always keep an eye out.
