A Chinese telecom fraud and gambling syndicate was busted in one fell swoop, with 22 individuals arrested, making over a million US dollars annually.

Indonesian police recently launched a large-scale crackdown, successfully dismantling a cross-border controlled online gambling crime network, involving as many as 22 suspects, with illegal profits exceeding 20 billion Indonesian rupiah (approximately 1.2 million US dollars).

The arrests were led by the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Indonesian National Police, with simultaneous raids conducted in multiple locations including Mawu, Wujiasai, Danglang, and Denpasar in Bali, targeting two main illegal gambling platforms—"Akasia899" and "Tanjung899". Investigations revealed that the servers of both platforms are located in China and Cambodia, operating in a typical "external hardware, internal control" model.

The arrested individuals include technical maintenance staff, financial transaction personnel, and channel promotion operators. The police pointed out that the organization uses thousands of real-name registered SIM cards to mass-produce WhatsApp accounts, generating up to 500 accounts per day. They also coordinate via Telegram and WhatsApp groups to massively distribute gambling inducement advertisements to Indonesian users, commonly using phrases like "guaranteed profit" and "quick deposit".

More alarmingly, the gang uses nominee bank accounts and cryptocurrency transfers to obscure the flow of funds and disguises gambling transactions as "daily goods payments" in an attempt to evade bank scrutiny and government regulation.

At the scene, police seized a large amount of equipment and evidence, including: 354 mobile phones, 23 computers, 2,648 SIM cards, 18 bank cards, a car used for transporting equipment, and a set of network communication systems.

Currently, the suspects are facing multiple serious charges, including illegal gambling, violation of the Electronic Information and Transactions Law (ITE Law), and money laundering. If convicted, they could face up to 15 years in prison and a fine of 1 billion Indonesian rupiah (approximately 61,000 US dollars).

The police remind the public to be cautious of gambling-related scam information spread through social platforms and to be wary of the traps behind "high return" scams.