The Jakarta Metro Police has carried out a raid at the office of an unregistered online lender in Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK), apprehending 99 people during the operation.
Police raided a shophouse in the North Jakarta neighborhood on Wednesday evening after they were tipped that it housed an online lending service not registered with the Financial Services Authority (OJK).
Jakarta Metro Police spokesman Endra Zulpan said the lender employed coercive methods for collecting from clients.
“Among them were threats, and posting online things that demean the borrowers’ integrity and dignity,” Zulpan said.
An office manager and 98 employees were present at the time of the raid. Half of the employees were tasked with reminding clients about upcoming payment deadlines, while the other half were tasked with reminding clients to pay up after they had missed their deadlines.
Police said some of the employees were below the legal employment age, and had no idea about the legality (or lack thereof) of the operation.
The office had been operating since December 2021, lending money through 14 unregistered apps. Police have not yet announced charges related to the raid.
Authorities across Indonesia have been cracking down on illegal online lenders and making high-profile raids at their offices in recent months. These lenders are known to prey on the desperate and financially illiterate, giving them seemingly easy loans that come loaded with exorbitant interest rates while farming their private data.
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