Karwang: Indonesian mother of three Aslem was a domestic worker in Dubai when she began wiring money to a self-described shaman in the hopes that he would keep his word to magically multiply her hard-earned wages.
She claimed that a trickster who is currently on trial for his intricate scams and for the murder of nine of his victims had swindled her out of her life savings when she returned home last year, broke and shocked.
"I have nothing now," Aslem, 42, said to AFP from her small, run-down home in a remote West Javan village of Karawang.
"I wanted to remodel the modest home my parents left me. I desired to bring them joy. It wasn't until the day of their passing that I was able to do that.
Some people in Indonesia, a Muslim-majority country where nearly 10% of people live in poverty, view shamans as traditional healers. Aslem is one of many Indonesians who claim they were duped by con artists who pretended to be spiritual leaders and promised to turn their small investments into enormous wealth.According to the police, some alleged con artists resort to violence when their victims come after their money.
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The con games have been widely disseminated on Indonesian social media. As of this week, just two dozen Facebook posts promoting purported shaman investment schemes had received more than 1.4 million views, according to Jakarta-based reporters for AFP Fact Check.
A Muslim sheikh would help people multiply their money, according to one post that received 643,000 views between April 8 and May 17. It also claimed that the service did not go against Islamic principles.
When AFP reporters called a WhatsApp number connected to one of the posts, they were instructed to send pictures of their IDs to find out if they qualified for the "magic money" scheme.
As part of the third-party fact-checking programme run by Meta, the company that owns Facebook and WhatsApp, AFP has a team of journalists working globally, including one in Indonesia.
Aslem claimed that after relocating to Dubai in 2016, she started speaking with a man her friend had recommended who claimed to be a Javan shaman by the name of Aki Banyu.
On a 2019 trip home, Aslem, who now sells snacks from her porch, recalled the initial encounter with the man.
She claimed the man prepared sacrifices, chanted a mantra, and assured her that her funds would soon multiply.
After he promised to turn her earnings into staggering sums totaling nearly $2 million, she later sent him about 288 million rupiah ($19,500), she told AFP.
The man was later identified by police as Wowon Erawan, a 60-year-old who they claim conspired with two other people to defraud migrant workers of their money.
Police charged the group with murdering nine people, including Erawan's wife and stepchildren, in a press conference in January to hide their crimes.
The three men, according to the police, admitted to killing victims with drinks laced with pesticides after they were detained. When Aslem inquired about her investment in late 2022, they had intended to poison her, according to the police.
She declined to attend the meeting the men set up for her after hearing from friends that Erawan and his friends were swindlers, according to police.
Neng Hana Patiningrum, a mother of three and another migrant worker, told AFP that she thinks she narrowly avoided dying at the hands of the con artists.
The 30-year-old woman wired more than 100 million rupiah to the same shaman but stopped doing so in 2021 after receiving no response to her inquiries, according to her.
Due to the torrential rains, she didn't meet him when she returned to Indonesia. Siti Fatimah, her friend, did not live to tell her tale. She vanished before her body was discovered in early 2021 in waters close to Bali. The trio was accused by police.
"I was surprised. How could someone steal the money we toiled so hard to earn? I've been traumatised, Patiningrum said. At the police press conference, Erawan expressed regret and apologised to the families of the victims.
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If found guilty, the trio would receive the death penalty.After a man's family reported him missing in April, police detained Slamet Tohari, a 45-year-old accused shaman serial killer. Tohari is also accused of luring victims into rituals while boasting about his ability to magically multiply money, then poisoning them with potassium cyanide when they demanded their money back.
Police say at least 12 bodies have been discovered on Slamet's property, though they warned in a statement last month that there may be more after receiving additional reports of 28 missing people.
Victims claimed to AFP that they were left to live with empty pockets and the embarrassment of falling for the con. It seemed to be a nightmare. Patiningrum sobbed, "People kept telling me I was stupid and careless. But I never anticipated this to occur.
