July 28, 2022 – The North Sulawesi Police have uncovered the case and secured a skimming crime syndicate on Bank SulutGo. This was told by North Sulawesi Police Chief Inspector General Mulyatno in a press conference on Monday (25/7) in Sulut Police Headquarters.
“The syndicate consists of two Bulgarian men and two Indonesian women,” said Mulyatno, accompanied by the Director of Criminal Investigation at the North Sulawesi Police, Kombes Pol Nasriadi and the Director of Compliance at Bank SulutGo, Pius Batara.
He also revealed the identity of two foreigners from Bulgaria are with the initials MIS alias, AM (28) and VAK (36). Meanwhile, the two Indonesian women are with the initials CW (23), a resident of Maluku, and ALS (31), a resident of Surabaya.
The culprits made a move in 26 Bank SulutGo ATM locations in the Kota Manado area, Sulut on June 30, 2022, around 12:30 AM to 6:00 AM WITA. The modus operandi is that they’re going to draw cash by making transactions (money transfer and cash withdrawals) in Bank SulutGo ATMs.
“They use a card that looks like ATM cards or white card with magnetic stripe,” he explained further.
The culprits made a transaction 634 times, with details of cash withdrawals of IDR 450,900,000. The money is then transferred to 18 Indodax Bank Mandiri virtual accounts for IDR 3,306,040,000. A total of IDR 3,756,940,000 from 229 Bank SulutGo accounts are lost.
“In January 2022, [we] found a skimmer tool inside the card reader machine in Bank SulutGo ATM at Markobar Tikala, Manado,” he said.
In March 2022, a couple of transactions were made in a few ATMs in Bali and Surabaya areas with a total of IDR 1,789,563,000 from 144 SulutGo bank accounts taken.
The police apprehended MIS in North Kuta, Bali on July 20 2022 around 2 AM WITA while CW is apprehended the same day in Legian, Bali. Meanwhile, VAK and ALS were arrested in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara on July 22 2022 around 1 AM WITA.
