Consumer Protection Agency Deems Trading Bots 'a Ticking Time Bomb'

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Head of the National Consumer Protection Agency (BPKN) Rizal E. Halim on Tuesday called for the Financial Services Authority (OJK) Investment Alert Task Force (SWI) to act against the massive use of trading bots. 

“The trading bot phenomenon is indeed like a ticking time bomb which can have a greater explosive effect compared to insurance, umrah travel, and other types of investment scams,” Rizal said in a statement to Antaranews on December 21. 

He believes the risks greatly increase when the servers of the perpetrators are located overseas and argues that the practice’s massive promotion in social media platforms will lead to an ample amount of people falling victim. 

Rizal explained that trading bots are extremely massive and usually only use a futures trading license, considering the lack of regulations overseeing the practice which he likened to online gambling. 

“Taking firm action against the perpetrators will be more effective in parallel to systemizing this industrial sub-sector,” said Rizal. 

The Investment Alert Task Force on December 5 forcefully stopped the operations of Vidy Coin and Vidyx, which are unlicensed entities that trade cryptocurrency and crypto assets. They also shut down five other activities suspected to be money games and unlicensed trade bot activities. 

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