WARNING: International investors in Indonesia – Be careful!

Indonesia is not a place where you can rely blindly on the banking system to ensure the entity you are transferring money to, - is really exists. At least, this is the situation in the respected BCA Bank

Many of the criminals responsible for fraud cases are usually ask for money to be sent by facilities like Western Union , where everyone can get money without serious identity verification.

Recently, I was contacted by a guy who wants to buy bicycle parts from an Indonesian vendor in Medan . He was aware to the fact that there are many fraud cases in Indonesia , so he looks for a supplier who gave him his home address, and BCA bank account. BCA is a respected bank, - so he was sure that if this guy has a BCA bank account, - the bank seriously validated his data, and in case the goods will not be supplied, - he will know where to find the guy, and demand the goods from him or sue him.

As you may guess, - the goods did not arrive. He asked me to go and visit the vendor's home address (Details: Mr. David Sipayung, Jl Menteng 7 GG, Ahliwaris 97C, Medan 20228). I went there. The people at that address said they never heard about the name 'David Sipayung'. The neighbors and the local LURAH office said the same.

So, we contacted the vendor's BCA bank branch (BCA Katamso, account # 8000454941), and we were told to contact BCA through HaloBCA email. It took some weeks, and we were told after some pressure that "Regarding to the crime-indicated remittance which we have talked about from our previous emails, please be informed that we have investigated by phone and visitation to the address and we could not meet Him. Based on our investigation it is correct that the data of the beneficiary account is fictitious and It seemed he had moved away. We'd like to inform you that we have taken a special attention to this account suspect".

Since only a small amount of money is involved (just US$ 1,148.50), - we asked the BCA bank to compensate the buyer with this small amount of money for the lost the bank's negligence of customer details verification caused him.

The bank refused.

For this small amount of money it's not worth to start a legal action. Hence: the money is lost.

So, the massage from us to any international investor: Never trust the accountability of BCA bank.

For Indonesian readers: We will appreciate any information which can lead to the allocation of the criminal that used the name 'David Sipayung' to take my friends' money and run away.