Romance Scammers Use Religious Approach to Trap Victims

KOMPAS

Fraudsters disguised as love or love scammers stalk victims. Using dating applications or social media to catch victims, the perpetrators offer a sweet love relationship at the beginning of being together. Then, they exploit the victim constantly. Kompas' investigations revealed that there was financial exploitation to sexual exploitation masquerading as love.

With a religious approaches and other mind games, romance scammers can effectively lure their victims into their “love trap”.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Perpetrators of a romance scam often use religious and psychological approaches to lure their victims. With these approaches, four of the alleged romance scammers could effectively lure their victims into their “love trap”, according to an investigation conducted by Kompas throughout March and April.

With the religious approach, a romance scammer pretends to be pious and has good religious insights. Such a modus operandi was used by Faris Ahmad Faza (31) to lure nine victims in East Java and Central Java. Faza often appeared wearing a sarong and claimed to be the son of a religious leader who owned a boarding school.

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To his victim, IL (28), who lives in Tulungagung, East Java, Faza repeatedly said he wanted to study the Quran. "Honey, I want to read the Quran again, because in the past, I could not finish it,” he told IL in January. "Yes, my dear," IL replied.

After having established a relationship with IL, Faza started to talk about his job as a distributor of gadgets. He told IL that he needed additional capital. Faza said he could not use his own funds, because his bank account was blocked due to an indication of money laundering. He, therefore, needed to borrow money from IL to bribe bank officials to unblock his account.

Initially, he paid his debts in installments. However, over time, debts continued to pile up and Faza asked more and more. If the victim was reluctant to lend money to him, he got angry. He even pretended to be sick and wore bandages.

IRENE SARWINDANINGRUM

Faris Ahmad Faza (31) always wears a sarong everywhere to support his lies as the son of a kyai who owns a boarding school. Photos were obtained from victims in Kediri and Tulungagung when he was acting in these two areas in East Java.

"I checked -- there are no scars, only clean bandages," said another of Faza’s victims, TR (33), who lost Rp 40 million (US$2,784.77). TR and eight other victims were asked by Faza to borrow from online lending platforms if their savings were not enough to meet his requirements.

For gambling

Ironically, the victim's funds mostly poured into online gambling platforms. Faza's acquaintance in Kediri, East Java, named Samara Diki, said that Faza joined a gambling platform through the Jasabet.com site using a bank account under the name of Dwi Priyanto at Bank Central Asia. The bank account was also used to receive a fund transfer from LL (25), a victim in Kediri.

LL transferred money to the account 27 times as of February 2022 for a total of Rp 64 million, on Faza's request. Faza said Dwi was his business partner. Kompas managed to track the account on a gambling platform on April 9-10 under the guise of a gambler. The admin of the jasabet.com site admitted that the account was once used as a deposit account.

To confirm allegations, Kompas visited Faza’s house at the address on his ID card in Semarang, Central Java, on Tuesday (22/3/2022). The house was occupied by the couple Dani and Erna, who said that the Faza family had lived in the house six years ago.

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The manager at the Malioboro City Apartment, Sleman, Yogyakarta, did not recognize him when Kompas showed Faza’s photograph. Faza once told her victim that he lived in the apartment. "The address is wrong. It is written incorrectly,” said Valdo, the apartment manager.

Like Faza, Emirat Moniharapon (29) also displayed a pious veneer in front of his victims. On his Instagram account, Emiratmo89, he often uploaded words of wisdom. When we met him in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Emirat looked strong, sturdy and had light skin, just like the photograph on his Instagram account.

RK (43), a jewelry trader, who had a long-distance relationship with Emirat, was lured via text message. Emirat repeatedly declared his love to the woman, who had a child. RK accepted his love, since Emirate promised to establish a serious relationship and marry her.

KOMPAS/IRENE SARWINDANINGRUM

Three victims of fraudsters disguised as love Faris Ahmad Faza (31), namely Tr (31), Li (25) and Il (28), reported together to the Kediri City Police, East Java, Sunday (20/3/2022).

Interestingly, every time Emirat professed his love, he also asked for money under various pretexts. "Oh dear, the money my darling sent yesterday has run out. So, how much does my sweetheart want to send?" Emirati messaged to RK one day.

Mind games

Meanwhile, Mohammad Iqbal Pangestu (29) played mind games to attract his victims. He generally approached the victims aggressively before establishing a serious relationship. Iqbal did not give the victims a chance to think twice.

With this method, WT (25), a woman in Semarang, was baited and hooked. She met Iqbal via the Line app on the night of Jan. 16. On that night, Iqbal said he was serious and then took WT to his parents in Cilacap, Central Java, to ask for their blessing. This blessing was then used as a tool to financially exploit WT.

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Only two weeks after their first meeting, Iqbal managed to get money worth Rp 40 million from WT. After that, the man, who lived in Tangerang, Banten, disappeared. "Since the morning of January 30, he could not be reached," said WT.

Kompas tried to trace Iqbal's footsteps in Tangerang regency, Banten, from the address given to WT. At the family house of Iqbal, his fictional story was unveiled. He does not come a rich family and is also not a businessman, as he told his victims. "(He) did not finish school," said Iqbal's father, Aj. The family said they did not know Iqbal’s whereabouts.

KOMPAS/IRENE SARWINDANINGRUM

Three victims of fraudsters disguised as love Faris Ahmad Faza (31), namely Tr (31), Li (25) and Il (28), when reporting together at the Kediri City Police Station, East Java, Sunday (20/3/2022).

The investigation continued on to one of the apartments in Bekasi, West Java. In that apartment, Iqbal had stayed with AM (26), another victim from North Jakarta. Kompas checked the list of tenants the night AM met Iqbal. It turned out that the unit Iqbal occupied that night was rented using someone else's ID.

Beyond their financial loss, victims also felt cheated because the perpetrators used a false image. The image made the victim interested in having a relationship, as admitted by a number of women who claimed to be victims of Leonardus Wahyu Dewala (32).

On a dating app, he posed as an overseas graduate. SF (27), one of the victims, often received voice messages in English from Dewala. Dewala told SF he could read people's characters by looking at their eyebrows.

"He quoted foreign theories, which I honestly have never heard of before," said SF, amazed by Dewala at the time.

Praising one’s eyebrows could be one of Dewala's methods to lure victims. It is very possible that the name of the Instagram account @aliskamugemash (your eyebrows are lovely), which contains the testimony of dozens of Dewala victims, was inspired by his method of seduction. When we met him at his house in Magelang, Central Java, Dewala mentioned eyebrows as one of the natural forms in the human body. He did not explain what he really meant with his theory.

The psychological aspect of the victims is often the target of the perpetrator. “These victims are not stupid, but their heart can melt easily when they get attention from someone. The attention from this person can affect their psychology, which makes the victims behave irrationally,” said Diah Esfandari, the chairperson of the Romance Scam Alert Community. (FAI/DVD/IRE/NDY)