Ministry calls for stronger collaboration to fight online scams

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2 hours ago

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs is pushing to strengthen cross-sector coordination to combat online scams.

Director General of Digital Space Supervision at the ministry, Alexander Sabar, emphasised the government, regulators, law enforcement agencies, and industry players each share the responsibility to build a digital ecosystem capable of rapidly and effectively preventing and responding to various forms of fraud.

Speaking at the “Strengthening Cross-Sector Coordination in Handling Online Scams” discussion in Jakarta on Monday, Sabar noted online scams are no longer isolated issues within a single sector, as the tactics used often span multiple components of the digital ecosystem.

“As of late August, the Indonesia Anti-Scam Center had received nearly 670,000 fraud reports involving more than 1.2 million accounts,” he said at the event, attended by representatives of various institutions, including the Financial Services Authority and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Online fraud can encompass digital platforms, telecommunications, payment systems, the financial services sector, and even the laundering of proceeds from crime.

Addressing such scams, he said, requires cross-sector coordination to ensure information, policies, and response strategies across all domains remain fully connected.

Furthermore, he underscored the need to strengthen regulations that provide clarity on the roles and authority of all parties. The regulations are also needed to establish mechanisms for coordination, information sharing, and response protocols against online scams.

“We want to ensure our policies do not operate in silos, but instead serve as a foundation for joint efforts to protect the public,” he said.

Sabar emphasised public trust and security are vital foundations for sustaining Indonesia’s digital transformation.

“Technology must bring benefits and convenience to the public, but it must be backed by an ecosystem that is safe, trustworthy, and capable of protecting against evolving risks,” he stated.