JAKARTA (Jakarta Post/ANN): The Denpasar Police have freed 26 foreign nationals who were allegedly held captive at a villa in Bali and forced into participating in online scam operations.
The victims were rescued after officers raided a guesthouse on Jl. By Pass Ngurah Rai in the Kuta tourist area on Monday afternoon.
Denpasar Police Chief Sr. Comr. Leonardo D. Simatupang said that authorities conducted the raid following a tip-off from the Philippine Embassy in Jakarta. “The embassy reported that an alleged scam operator had been holding their citizens captive in Bali,” he said.
Leonardo, who led the raid, said officers found that several rooms on the second floor of the guest house had been converted into makeshift workspaces equipped with electronic devices, including laptops and a Starlink internet connection.
Police also found a range of items from the guesthouse, including dozens of mobile phones, laptops, iPads, internet devices, as well as costumes and attributes resembling those used by foreign law enforcement agencies.
Leonardo added that most of the victims held at the site were Philippine and Kenyan nationals. He said some of them were unable to present passports during the raid.
An Indonesian was also found inside the guesthouse, although his role or level of involvement remains unclear.
Leonardo said investigations into the case are ongoing, and police have not yet named any suspects.
“All foreign nationals are currently undergoing intensive questioning,” he said. He added that investigators are also coordinating with Bali Immigration to verify the legal status of all the foreign nationals involved. “We are continuing to develop this case to uncover the wider network and ensure the protection for all victims,” he said.
This is not the first case in which authorities have uncovered online scam operations in Bali.
In June last year, two Chinese nationals were deported and blacklisted from Indonesia for allegedly running a “love scam” operation from the popular tourist destination.
Authorities seized 76 mobile phones, seven iPads and three laptops, which were believed to be used to target victims in their home country. Further investigation also uncovered a WhatsApp group named “Love Scamming Bali,” involving seven other Chinese nationals who were subsequently blacklisted by Indonesian immigration authorities.
In June 2024, Bali immigration, together with the Bali Becik Task Force, detained 103 Taiwanese nationals at a villa in Marga District, Tabanan Regency, over alleged involvement in online scam activities.
The group, comprising 12 women and 91 men, had arrived in stages through various airports across Indonesia using different types of visas. Many were found to have overstayed their permits. They were later deported in stages roughly a month after their arrest.
In August 2024, seven Nigerian nationals were also arrested at a hotel and a rented house in Bali over alleged involvement in love scam operations. Three of them had overstayed their visas for about a year and reportedly attempted to evade arrest by jumping from a third-floor hotel room during the raid. -- Jakarta Post/Asia News Network
