Weddings attract a variety of scams, wives disappear contracts to false propositions and false planners.
Arab sex tourists have for decades been visiting Indonesia for contractual marriages "- a form of prostitution as a religious veneer of respectability. Sometimes men are torn by marriage brokers and unscrupulous "wives".
A scam targeting Arab men who pay anywhere from Rp.2 million to Rp.50 million for a young woman for a day or a month. When man takes his 'married' to a hotel or villa to consummate the marriage, she made an excuse they need to buy something from a pharmacy. She never returns, but goes back to his agent to be sold to another "husband."
There have been occasional police crackdown on contractual marriages, especially in the resort area of Puncak in Bogor, West Java. Some Arab men were arrested and deported for violating the conditions of their tourist visas by buying wives. Police said that contractual marriages, although not recognized by the state, are not a crime if entered into voluntarily by both parties. Some contract wives filed complaints of assault and being left without full payment.
Vice-President-elect Jusuf Kalla was criticized in 2006 when he encouraged Arab men visiting Puncak contract to buy brides. He said short-term marriages were financially beneficial to women and children attractive products with "good genes".
virgin brides are sold in Bogor up to Rp.50 million, half of which is given to the woman or her family, the rest going to pimps and clerics and officials who authorize the fictitious marriage. older prostitutes claim to earn about Rp.15 million per month as wives contract.
Robbery
Police in South Jakarta this month arrested a man named Soni Prasetyo (45) for stealing a woman he had promised to marry. Soni had called random numbers until he found one lady ready to flirt. He seduced her and proposed marriage. In May, he told his victim that he would take her shopping for a wedding dress. As they left, he asked her to put her handbag containing cash, gold jewelry, bank cards and a smartphone in the safe box of his motorcycle. Then he pretended motorcycle had run out of fuel and told his fiancée waiting by the road, while he looked for gasoline. He never returned.
In cases less brazen, young men targeting widowed or divorced rich for the wedding, then take their assets and divorce them.
Money for Nothing
A couple engaged to Jakarta, Satrio and Ana, hired a wedding planner named Nitrya Sundari after seeing her ad online for a package marriage with a "promotional discount" price Rp.35 million. They ended up making payments of Rp.114 million over 10 months, but the planner provided them with nothing.
The day before the reception of the couple, Nitrya informed them that she had changed the location. By visiting the new location to check the preparations, the couple has discovered nothing had been booked and no one had heard of them. Nitrya stopped taking their calls and was subsequently arrested. She was tried for fraud and jailed for a year by South Jakarta District Court. It is due for release next month.
Insanity
When marriages go sour, many couples opt for divorce. In the capital of East Java Surabaya, a woman had her ex-husband in a mental hospital.
Idawati Tanudjojo and Agus Setiyono married in 1992 and later had two children. After 18 years of marriage, they are no longer on good terms. In February 2010, Ida, then aged 40, decided to take control of two stores optometry her husband. To do this, she contacted the psychiatric hospital Menur and said that Agus was mentally ill.
The next morning, the hospital sent two nurses, a public order officer and an ambulance to the couple's home driver. Ida directed them to the room of her husband, saying she was afraid of him.
Agus was awakened and handcuffed. He demanded an explanation. Instead, he was bundled into an ambulance. On arrival at the hospital, he was sedated until unconscious. No one is trying to determine his sanity.
Relatives of Agus later found out where he was and managed to have him transferred to a regular hospital. Agus then checked and filed a police complaint against his wife. The case eventually went to the Supreme Court, which this year has sentenced Ida to six months in prison to deprive her husband of his personal freedom.