Sharing Stories About Data Security in CfDS’s Oposit #5

Yogyakarta, July 1st 2020—Center for Digital Society (CfDS) at Gadjah Mada University Faculty of Social Science and Politic is back with another OPOSiT session – a discussion series that talks about the digital world. In this episode of OPOSiT, CfDS raised the topic of data security. This talk was open to everyone who wanted to join. For those who wants to talk or share their insights, they can ask the OPOSiT host to invite them to join the CfDS Instagram live stream.

In the beginning of the fifth OPOSiT, the host said hi to the viewers and asked the viewers where they came from and how they are doing. The host also briefly explained the topic that is going to be discussed; data security that is closely tied to stories about digital fraud. There is an interesting information that CfDS found while researching about this topic. Turns out, the actors of the digital fraud do their action by using psychological manipulation to the victims.

The first story was told by Bayu. He told an experience that his mother went through. In 2019, Bayu’s mother got a text explaining that there is a package stuck in the airport. This package is from overseas and the tax of the package has not been paid yet. The caller asked Bayu’s mother to pay the tax. Coincidentally, at that time, Bayu’s mother had just bought a package from overseas. As soon as Bayu knew about this matter, Bayu immediately tried to check the data of the person that called his mother. He knew then that it was fraud. Reflecting on that experience, he said that we need to check and confirm the statement to the package sender when the same thing happens to us.

The next participant that told his story was Adat. Adat almost had his private data stolen by an e-commerce site. After Adat put up an ad at that site suddenly there was someone that asked for Adat’s id card photo. Not only that, Adat was also asked to give a photo of him taking a picture with the id card. Both of these photos are risky and dangerous when shared, because it can be used by someone to get an online loan. “One day, out of nowhere, we might be chased by a debt collector,” Adat explained. We can minimize these incidents by developing our digital literacy skill. Other than that, we can also warn and teach people who are not familiar with the digital world, such as parents.

The story was continued by the third and fourth participant, which were Dinda and Oki. Their stories were pretty similar; their data was used after they gave that data to a certain site. Dinda experienced this on one of a fundraising platform. Meanwhile, Oki experienced it when he was applying for a job through an online form. In Oki’s experience, while doing a transaction, Oki was told to send a top-up to the perpetrator instead of sending a photo. That’s when Oki knew that he was scammed.
Dinda said that we should be careful when giving personal information, even in sites related to finances. Additionally, while using m-banking, Dinda said that it is better if we don’t use public wifi or turn on the VPN.

While the session was going on, a lot of the participants told their story through the comment section. Some went to the police because they were scammed, some were scammed when helping someone, and there was someone who became a content in the scammer’s site. The host also told her personal story about online scamming. The OPOSiT live stream ended at 20:15 pm. It can be re-watched through the IGTV page of CfDS’s Instagram.