Indonesia ready to partner with Cambodia to eradicate online scams

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3 hours ago

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Indonesia expressed readiness to strengthen cooperation with Cambodia to eradicate online scams and online gambling, including through closer coordination in handling Indonesian citizens affected by crackdown operations, Deputy Foreign Minister Arif Havas Oegroseno said.

He made this statement at the International Conference on Combating Online Scams (ICCOS): “Acting Together towards Breaking the Chain and Eradication of Online Scams,” held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on September 23-24.

The statement was cited by the Indonesian Embassy in Phnom Penh in a release from the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.

The conference produced the Phnom Penh Declaration on Combating Online Scams, which strengthened the commitment of 28 countries and seven international organizations to enhance international cooperation, law enforcement, information exchange, asset tracing and recovery, and victim protection.

The conference also accepted Indonesia’s proposal to set up a cross-country coordination mechanism to fight the rising threat of online scams.

Oegroseno explained that the cross-country coordination mechanism was not intended to be a new institution or secretariat.

The mechanism was designed to connect various ongoing efforts at the regional and global levels, including national focal points along with existing national, regional, and multilateral cooperation mechanisms.

This would allow information to be relayed and responses to be carried out more quickly and in a coordinated manner, especially through faster information exchange, law enforcement coordination, and handling of cross-border cases.

Indonesia also expressed its readiness to strengthen cooperation with Cambodia, ASEAN, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), and other participating countries to develop connectivity between existing mechanisms.

In the high-level session “Online Scams as a Global Emergency,” Oegroseno emphasized the importance of rapid response.

At the conference, Indonesia introduced the Task Force for the Eradication of Illegal Financial Activities (Satgas PASTI), the Indonesia Anti-Scam Centre (IASC), and Frontier+ as part of its national experience in strengthening coordination and handling of online scams.

“Criminals move within minutes. Therefore, our coordination must also be able to match their speed,” he said.