Romance scam cases in Indonesia have been recently increasing, according to a lecturer at the UGM Faculty of Law and Chair of the UGM Center for Law, Gender, and Society Studies, Sri Wiyanti Edyyono. The development of technology and the internet has made love scam more widespread.
“Romance scam is not a new case. It is not too familiar because there are only a few cases reported,” she said in the Webinar Series: Love Scam held by the UGM Center for Women’s Studies (PSW), Saturday (6/3).
However, there are still some unreported cases. There are some considerations why victims prefer not to report their cases. It is because they assume it is embarrassing and might risk their dignity. They are also afraid that people will blame them.
Thus, the occurrence of social distancing in the middle of a pandemic leads them into boredom. Not a few people then begin to find a way to get a solution, one of which is to talk and meet through the internet. However, the rampant romance scam cases have left them vulnerable.
“Romance scam is not a new case. It is not too familiar because there are only a few cases reported,” she said in the Webinar Series: Love Scam held by the UGM Center for Women’s Studies (PSW), Saturday (6/3).
However, there are still some unreported cases. There are some considerations why victims prefer not to report their cases. It is because they assume it is embarrassing and might risk their dignity. Besides, they are also afraid that people will blame them.
“They are afraid that people will make jokes out of these cases and make it as public consumption instead of considering it as something serious to precede to the law enforcement officer,” she said.
In addition to that, the level of romance scam prevention in Indonesia is still lacking. Meanwhile, law enforcement in Indonesia is inconsistent, the supervision is unsustainable, and data on problems are incomplete. Furthermore, strong cultural stereotypes of sexuality in the country have led the victims to hesitate to report their cases.
Wiyanti emphasized that there should be some efforts to prevent this case, such as strengthening the regulations, digital literacy in women, promotion of protection, complaint mechanisms, changes in regulations, etc.
“This should be included in the issue of the Draft Bill on the Elimination of Sexual Violence, and there should be a new legal regulation to cover it because if we still refer to the existing regulations, there will be no improvement at all,” she explained.
Lecturer of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP) at UIN Walisongo Semarang, Nur Hasyim, a gender observer, said that a romance scam is an act of violence because it contains elements of coercion of the volition, manipulation, and exploitation. Sexual abuse that happened to the romance scam victims could interfere with their mental health, such as anxiety, stress, and even depression. Nur Hasim also revealed that romance scam cases could happen to anyone. Still, women, especially widows, have a higher risk of becoming romance scam victims.
“Traditional gender norms also make them vulnerable to being romance scam victims,” he explained.
Source: https://ugm.ac.id/id/berita/20847-penegakan-hukum-terhadap-love-scam-di-indonesia-belum-konsisten
