Indonesians from all walks of life are still prone to fraudulent investments. Why? Mainly due to a lack of awareness and the promise of easy money. About 58% of Indonesians do not have a bank account. They are discouraged by high monthly fees and minimum balance requirements. This makes them vulnerable to high interest expense of loan sharks. They are also attracted by scammers who offer high returns in pyramid schemes.
If you go to the Bank of Central Asia to open a basic savings account, the monthly administrative fee is Rp.13,000, while interest is 0.9% only (for deposits To encourage the poor to start saving, the government asked in 2009 the major banks to introduce no-frills accounts, called Tabunganku (My savings) for low-income people. Several banks now offer these accounts, which are free to open with a minimum deposit of only Rp.20,000 and no monthly administration fee. The problem is that some impose heavy costs to make more than two withdrawals per month, and not offer all the ATM cards. Inactive accounts are fined and those who are below the minimum balance are closed. The accounts are not widely available because they are not considered particularly profitable. So instead of going to the banks, many people are trying their luck with, financial systems without unregistered license. Scammers operating pyramid schemes usually get the approval of legislators, religious Muslims and even the police. Pyramid schemes tend to start providing high returns to initial investors, but when too many people register, the funds have run dry. Indonesians lost a huge Rp.48 trillion ($ 3.87 billion) in financial scams in five years over the period 2007-2012. About two-thirds of the losses were pyramid / ponzi and marketing systems multilevel, and the rest of fraudulent cooperatives. Most victims were rural and suburban residents without bank accounts. Expatriates in Indonesia can also be cheated by dubious investments. Anyone who has made the mistake of giving their card when entering an event co-sponsored by the investment firm will then received invasive emails or calls from financial planners pushy trying to sell various phone investment . Most of the time, they provide safe returns, but at least one has sold a dud product and will be the subject of a future column here. A tirade of expletive laden should put an end to the persistent calls consultant who continues by saying, "How about I pencil you for a meeting next Wednesday" Indonesia needs a law? hard financial consumer protection and should start educating school children about the risk of impaired investment regimes. the police also need to be more careful. A police inspector traffic Jakarta is currently in hiding after receiving billions of rupees for business pyramid system of poultry, which went bankrupt. at least six policemen were among his victims. the officer ran the company with her twin sister and husband his sister, a military officer. They now face charges of fraud if they can not resolve the matter amicably. Financial Services Authority of Indonesia (OJK) urged the public to be wary of investment offers groups that are not registered financial services institutions. Warnings are fine, but the authorities usually ignore pyramid schemes until the operators fled to profit. Financial planners who receive commissions to convince people to put their money in risky investments tend to be immune from prosecution. There are many online companies offering yields of up to 150% for those who invest in programs such as chicken eggs, breeding goats, cassava plantations and trade gold. For example, a business of egg production chickens sells online for Rp.70,000 each and promised investors a return of Rp.700 per day per chicken for 150 days. "Your chicken will be productive expired / death after 150 days," says the site, so you can collect your profit and start Rp.35,000. This may sound ridiculous, but if you bought 1,000 chickens to Rp.70 million, you'd Rp.105 million more than 150 days - a profit of Rp.35 million. And for every person you come into the system, you receive 5% of the value of their investment, and another 2% of each person they recruit, then 1% of all people downstream in the chain. It is a reference system of classical string that should have the alarm. Too many eggs in one basket will break.