Indonesia deports 50 Internet scammers to Taiwan, China

Indonesia deported 50 Taiwanese and Chinese citizens today who were members of a cross-border telephone and Internet fraud ring, officials said.
Immigration official Yurod Saleh said the 49 Taiwanese and one Chinese were repatriated to face charges in their homeland. They have already spent two months in Indonesian jails and have been fined USD 770 for violating their tourist visas.
He said 419 Taiwanese and Chinese citizens have been arrested since August in several major Indonesian cities for involvement in cross-border telephone and Internet fraud.
About 280 have been sent home since October.
Jakarta police chief of detectives Lt Col Krishna Murti said the arrests followed a tip-off from Chinese police.

"They were committing the crimes from Indonesia to avoid being tracked down by their respective law enforcers," Murti said.
No details about the nature of the fraud were given. Such scams generally involve suspects obtaining personal information or prompting victims to transfer funds into overseas bank accounts.