Escape The Hack: Countering Cyber Scams with an Immersive Experience for Everyday Indonesians

About This Grant

Indonesia faces a pervasive and evolving cybercrime threat, with online scams growing in number and sophistication while U.S. families continue to lose their life s savings to international cybercrime, totaling over $12 billions in financial losses in 2023 alone. Unlike scam compounds in mainland Southeast Asia, criminal scam operations in Indonesia are decentralized and embedded within transnational networks. Thousands of Indonesian nationals have worked in scam compounds in Cambodia, Burma, and Laos, and there is now concern crackdowns in other countries prompting a wave of experienced Indonesian scammers to return home to establish new operations in collaboration with Chinese and other scam groups.To strengthen its efforts in combating scams, Indonesia established an Anti-Scam Center (IASC) in 2024 to respond to citizen complaints, block fraudulent transactions, and recover victim funds. IASC data shows an average of 1,300 complaints per day. The IASC reports approximately $500 million in victim losses from November 2025 to March 2026, of which only $9.75 million has been recovered a two percent recovery rate. To date, IDN law enforcement has not successfully recovered funds for U.S. victims. Officials state that victims delayed reporting (average of 24-48 hours) to the IASC and Indonesian National Police (INP) significantly contributes to law enforcement's inability to recover victim funds. Faster reporting directly correlates with higher asset recovery rates, as fraudulent transactions can be blocked before funds are transferred across multiple accounts or jurisdictions.In addition to harming U.S. citizens, digital fraud hurts U.S. companies as cybercrimes increasingly rely on direct messaging, platform-specific targeting, and syndicate-level tactics, with social media platforms emerging as a major channel for phishing, malicious APK files, fake investment groups, video-call extortion, and account takeovers. Criminal scam groups also tailor tactics across platforms, using Facebook for marketplace, romance, and fake job scams; Instagram for fake investments and impersonation, other platforms are used for donation scams, quick-wealth schemes, and deepfakes. Criminals support these schemes with technical infrastructure such as lookalike domains, fake sub-domains, shortened links, QR-code redirects,free SSL certificates, and resilient hosting to make fraudulent sites appear legitimate and harder to disrupt. Indonesia s Cyber and Cryptography Agency (BSSN) assesses that AI will increasingly be used as a double-edged sword with perpetrators creating highly natural phishing, automated chatbot scams, voice cloning and deepfake videos to impersonate individuals.The Escape the Hack escape room and launch event addresses these threats through a popular entertainment activity that provides an emotional triggering connection with victims. By educating Indonesian citizens on recognizing scams, the dangers of working in scam centers, and the importance of immediate reporting the program targets one of the most actionable gaps in Indonesia s current anti-scam framework. A more cyber-aware Indonesian public that reports scams promptly strengthens the law enforcement s ability to block fraudulent transactions in real time, benefiting both Indonesian and U.S. victims. The launch event with expert speakers amplifies this message to the widest possible audience through workshops, media coverage, and social media, maximizing the program s impact.The Escape the Hack initiative advances U.S. strategic interests by building cyber resilience in Indonesia ASEAN s largest economy and most populous nation making America safer and more prosperous. The program promotes the United States as a global leader in cybersecurity innovation and demonstrates American commitment to addressing shared security challenges through innovative, people-centered solutions.