Jakarta — Indonesia is facing the largest wave of digital fraud and scams in its history. The latest data from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and the Indonesia Anti Scam Center (IASC) shows that the country now ranks as the most vulnerable in the world for financial scam reports. To address the growing threat, OJK established the IASC in late 2024 to identify the scale of the problem and coordinate collaborative solutions. The IASC now tackles 18 different types of fraud, from illegal investments and unlicensed lending to online shopping scams and social media fraud. As digital financial services expand rapidly, more sophisticated fraud schemes have emerged, including those powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Cases that surfaced in recent months, from AI driven scams to allegations of a 1.2 trillion rupiah fraud in a regional bank, reveal systemic weaknesses in consumer protection, internal banking supervision, and national fraud mitigation.

Fraud Reports Surge as Indonesia Takes the Top Global Position

Between November 2024 and September 2025, Indonesia recorded more than 274 thousand reports of financial fraud. This represents an average of more than 800 reports every day. Total public losses are estimated to exceed 6 trillion rupiah. Funds successfully frozen and returned to victims remain far below the total losses.

The highest number of reports came from West Java, Jakarta, and East Java. While the surge reflects rising scam activity, it also indicates increasing public awareness to report incidents. However, the gap between reporting and successful fund recovery remains wide. This highlights that existing anti-fraud mechanisms are not keeping pace with fast evolving scam techniques.

A New Era of Fraud as AI Driven Losses Surpass 7 Trillion Rupiah

According to a report by Tech in Asia, Indonesia suffered losses of 465.6 million US dollars or more than 7 trillion rupiah due to AI powered scams between 2024 and 2025. Scam technology has advanced to a point where interactions are often indistinguishable from real human communication.

Some of the most widely reported methods are as follows:

  • Voice cloning. Scammers impersonate family members or colleagues requesting emergency funds. Many victims send money without further verification.
  • Video deepfake manipulation. Fraudsters engineer realistic facial and emotional expressions during video calls to exploit emotional connections.
  • Fake payment proofs. AI generated transfer receipts appear authentic, convincing victims that payments have been made.
  • Synthetic identity fraud. AI generates credible digital identities used to open new bank accounts or conduct illegal transactions.

These trends show that scammers’ technological capabilities are advancing faster than the average person’s ability to detect digital manipulation.

Structural Banking Fraud and Alleged Losses of 1.2 Trillion Rupiah

Fraud in Indonesia is not limited to individual victims. Large scale fraud has also been discovered within financial institutions. One notable case involves suspected credit irregularities at a Regional Development Bank (BPD) that resulted in losses of around 1.2 trillion rupiah.

OJK stated that it is working with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to investigate the case. The regulator has also disseminated findings from KPK’s assessment to all BPD supervisors nationwide. This is intended to improve oversight and strengthen internal controls so that irregularities can be detected earlier.

This case demonstrates that fraud in Indonesia appears in two forms. There is external fraud targeting the general public and internal fraud within financial institutions that may pose systemic risks.

OJK Regulation Number 12 of 2024 and the Push to Strengthen Anti Fraud Systems

Issued on July 31, 2024 and taking effect on October 31, 2024, the OJK regulation consolidates and expands previous anti-fraud guidelines. It requires all financial services institutions, including banks, insurers, financing companies, and fintech firms, to implement a comprehensive anti-fraud strategy based on four pillars: prevention, detection, investigation with reporting and sanctions, and ongoing monitoring. The regulation places direct responsibility on boards of directors and commissioners and calls for integrated anti-fraud controls across all products and channels. Institutions that continue to rely on fragmented or manual systems face heightened regulatory and reputational risks, particularly as the January 31, 2026 compliance reporting deadline approaches.

Some key provisions include:

  • Mandatory anti-fraud strategies. Each institution must establish clear and measurable anti-fraud policies and work plans.
  • Board level accountability. Boards of directors and commissioners are explicitly accountable for embedding anti-fraud strategies, with the threat of personal penalties for lapses in oversight.
  • Holistic integration across channels. Fraud monitoring must be unified across all product lines and channels, eliminating silos and enabling real time oversight.
  • Advanced detection methods. Institutions should employ AI driven analytics and scenario based simulations to detect complex fraud patterns such as coordinated fraud rings or mule networks.
  • Strengthened internal controls. Institutions must manage fraud risks involving employees, third parties, and customers.
  • Fraud identification and classification. The regulation provides more detailed definitions to facilitate investigation and enforcement.
  • Rapid incident reporting. Significant fraud incidents must be reported to OJK within three business days of discovery, requiring swift incident response and reporting processes.
  • Sanctions for non compliance. Institutions that fail to meet anti-fraud requirements may face regulatory penalties.

While the regulation provides a strong foundation, implementation remains challenging because not all institutions have the required capacity and technological infrastructure.

Major Challenges in Combating Fraud in Indonesia

Recent trends highlight several critical challenges:

  • Low recovery rates. The process of freezing fraudulent funds is too slow. Response times need to move from hours to minutes.
  • Low digital literacy. Many people remain unable to recognize AI generated manipulation.
  • Limited coordination across agencies. Collaboration between OJK, law enforcement, BSSN, the Ministry of Communication and Information, and tech platforms must be strengthened.
  • Internal risks within financial institutions. The BPD case shows that internal fraud can have system wide consequences.
  • Rapid advancement of criminal technology. Fraud techniques are evolving faster than regulations and legal infrastructure.

Strategic Recommendations

Several measures could strengthen Indonesia’s national anti fraud ecosystem:

  • Deployment of real time detection systems. Machine learning can identify suspicious patterns instantly.
  • Large scale digital literacy campaigns. Public education must focus on identity verification methods and AI based manipulation awareness.
  • Integrated fraud intelligence systems. Indonesia needs an interagency fraud intelligence center.
  • Internal reforms in financial institutions. Stronger internal audits, whistleblowing systems, and job rotation can reduce insider fraud risks.
  • Improved law enforcement capabilities. Specialized investigative units are needed for AI driven fraud and advanced cybercrime.

Indonesia is entering a critical phase in combating digital fraud. OJK Regulation Number 12 of 2024 marks a shift from fragmented controls to a unified, intelligence-driven fraud framework. It provides an important foundation, but success depends on rapid detection technologies, stronger interagency coordination, public education, and reinforced governance within financial institutions.

If the financial system fails to adapt, long term risks include declining public trust in digital financial services. With the right actions, however, Indonesia can strengthen its fraud defenses, keep pace with rapidly evolving criminal techniques, and even set a new benchmark for fraud prevention in the region.

The Role of Perfios in Strengthening Indonesia’s Anti Fraud Ecosystem

Amid Indonesia’s efforts to fortify its digital financial landscape, Perfios emerges as an important technology provider that enhances efficiency and reliability in financial data verification. The company offers advanced data analytics solutions that help financial institutions accelerate risk assessment, improve credit decision accuracy, and close manual gaps that often slow down verification processes. Through automation and cross document data extraction, Perfios helps reduce fraud exposure and provides greater transparency for both service providers and customers.

In addition to improving data integrity, Perfios provides an enterprise fraud management platform for real time, cross channel protection. This solution eliminates data silos by monitoring transactions across accounts, cards, payments, and digital wallets from a single system. Using advanced AI driven analytics, it can detect complex patterns that traditional rule based systems often miss. For example, the platform is able to identify coordinated fraud rings, mule networks, or insider collusion by analyzing subtle relationships and behavioral patterns across the customer ecosystem. By learning each customer’s normal behavior, the system minimizes false positives, ensuring that security measures do not unduly hinder legitimate transactions.

This platform automates compliance workflows through preconfigured OJK reporting templates and real time incident dashboards, allowing banks to meet the three business day reporting requirement while providing boards with immediate oversight of fraud cases. The system can also adapt quickly to emerging threats, including deepfake identity scams and social engineering, without major system changes, and integrates seamlessly with core banking systems and payment gateways to extend protection across subsidiaries and fintech partners.

Perfios also offers technologies that directly address the surge in AI based fraud. The company provides Deepfake Detection systems capable of identifying synthetic voices, images, and videos with very low error rates. Using micro texture analysis and generative fingerprinting, the system can detect manipulated media in milliseconds. This capability supports financial institutions in verifying digital identities more accurately and in closing vulnerabilities exploited by voice cloning and video deepfake scams.

In the insurance industry, Perfios supplies a Fraud Detection module that identifies suspicious claims. The system uses anomaly mapping, machine learning, and behavioral analysis to uncover fraudulent patterns such as upcoding or phantom billing. This technology has been adopted by various international insurance companies and has helped reduce claim losses by detecting fraud more quickly.

“AI based technology can be applied at mass scale to combat fraud that may be happening at mass scale. Digital fraud methods are innovating every day, and there are only a handful of companies in the world that have the knowhow and innovation capability to continuously address these issues,” said Sachin V. Gopalan, Founder & CEO of Indonesia Economic Forum, which is working on a white paper on the Digital Empowerment of Regional Development Banks (BPD).

He added, “Indonesia, like India, has a large number of regional banks and it is essential that the BPD sector invests in the latest AI technologies that have a proven track record with handling a large client base.”The presence of Perfios is highly relevant to Indonesia’s current fraud landscape because its solutions complement regulatory frameworks such as OJK Regulation Number 12 of 2024. By adopting technologies with advanced detection capabilities, financial institutions in Indonesia can accelerate digital identity verification, strengthen internal oversight, and reduce losses from AI driven scams and fraudulent insurance claims. Globally, Perfios has been recognized for achieving over 90% real time fraud detection rates and preventing hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud losses for major banks. Perfios demonstrates how advanced technology is essential for Indonesia to keep up with increasingly complex and fast evolving fraud threats.