The dangers of the Covid-19 pandemic are as real as the harmful pragmatism that is being exposed as people hoard drugs, present fake swab test documents, and commit cybercrimes.
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Abdullah Fikri Ashri/Tatang Sinaga/Machradin Ritonga
·4 minutes read
KOMPAS TV/FADLYANTO SUGIONO
W (red shirt), an honorary worker at the Sukra Public Health Center, Indramayu, was taken by the police to the Indramayu Police Station, West Java, Sunday (25/7/2021). W is suspected of falsifying an antigen test certificate at a rate of IDR 100,000 - IDR 150,000 per person.
Wearing a red shirt and black shorts, W (45) arrived at the Indramayu Police Criminal Investigation Unit in West Java on Sunday night (25/7/2021). More often than not, he kept his head down and just nodded in response to the questions of the investigator.
Hailing from Sukra, an outlying area of Indramayu, the janitor of the local community health center (puskesmas) suddenly went viral for a negative reason. He faked the certificates of antigen swab test results, the samples for which are normally extracted by inserting a medical swab into the nasal cavity.
"Just send [him] a copy of your ID card," Indramayu Police criminal unit head Adj. Comm. Luthfi Olot Gigantara replied when asked how a client obtained W’s service.
W charged his clients between Rp 100,000 and Rp 150,000 for fake test certificates, and between Rp 175,000 and Rp 200,000 for fraudulent tests.
W made the fraudulent documents at night, when the puskesmas was empty. Armed with the key to the computer room, he fiddled with the computer to alter a negative COVID-19 test result by changing the patient’s name with his client’s name and forging the signature of the official who certifies the test result.
W charged his clients between Rp 100,000 and Rp 150,000 for fake test certificates, and between Rp 175,000 and Rp 200,000 for fraudulent tests. Armed with the fake COVID-19 test certificates, his clients could travel during the emergency public activity restrictions (PPKM Darurat).
W confessed to 20 acts of phishing that netted him Rp 2 million. Police discovered copies of more than 40 identity cards.
W is facing up to six years in prison for violating Article 263 on document fraud of the Criminal Code. The police are investigating the case further, including the possible involvement of other individuals, as in the recent drug hoarding case in Bandung.
The West Java Police exposed the case of hoarding COVID-19 medicines on Wednesday (21/7), when they arrested ESF, MH, IC, SM, and NH in West Bandung and Bogor. Police confiscated 104 pills of Avigan 200 mg, 300 pills of Favika 200 mg, and 70 capsules of Oseltamivir 75 mg.
AFP/KAZUHIRO NOGI
Anti-influenza Avigan tablets produced by Japan\'s Fujifilm
West Java Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Endi A. Chaniago said the drugs’ selling prices had been significantly marked up. “Avigan, for example, was sold for Rp 10 million for 10 tablets, from Rp 2.6 million normally,” he said.
Special Crimes Investigation director Sn. Comr. Arif Rahman of the West Java Police said the perpetrators had exploited public panic over the pandemic to hoard and sell drugs at exorbitant prices.
However, not all suspected crimes related to COVID-19 have led to an arrest. The perpetrator behind an oxygen filling scam that went viral on social media, who had used Jl. Karapitan No. 51A in Bandung as a fake address, had yet to be revealed.
“More than 10 people [who had] transferred money for oxygen tanks came here. They found nothing," said Iwan (45), a parking attendant at the site of the bogus address.
The victims said they had paid Rp 1.2 million, Rp 1.5 million or Rp 2.4 million to the scammer, who persuaded the victims to transfer the money by using the PPKM Darurat as a pretext. The victims found no oxygen filling station at the designated address. Instead, there was a cafe.
KOMPAS TV/FADLYANTO SUGIONO
Head of the Criminal Investigation Unit of the Indramayu Police, Adjunct Commissioner Luthfi Olot Gigantara during an interview, Sunday (25/7/2021).
Vulnerability
The unfolding crimes have also exposed people’s vulnerability to malicious acts during the pandemic. In addition to West Java, similar cases have been reported in Jakarta, Banten, Kalimantan, Maluku, Sulawesi, and Papua.
Public panic can leave people susceptible to scams. Padjadjaran University criminologist Yesmil Anwar said the public needed to be educated and the authorities had to make serious intervention to help people avoid panicking in the current situation.
Fraudulent COVID-19 test certificates particularly exposed the vulnerability of health facilities to opportunistic crimes.
Puskesmas Sukra administrative head H. Widanto said that during the PPKM Darurat, six to seven people visited the facility each day to get antigen swab tests, which cost Rp 150,000 per person.
He said W had been reassigned to the test registration section because of the increased demand for testing. Able to operate a computer, W was filling the personnel shortage at the puskesmas. W, who had been working at the puskesmas since 2014, took advantage of the situation.
"His wage was [around Rp 2.3 million] based on the UMR," Widanto said, referring to the regional minimum wage.
Irvan Afriandi, a lecturer at the UNPAD medical school, said that drug hoarding and document fraud heightened the risk of transmission and threatened lives, potentially contributing to prolonging the pandemic.
