Bogus free transport offers surface as Indonesia gears up for Eid

Published on March 24, 2025 at 08:44
2 min read
By AFP Indonesia

As millions of Indonesians are expected to travel to their hometowns in an annual exodus for the Eid holiday in March, purported sign-up pages for the government's free transport programme surfaced online. The Muslim-majority nation's transport ministry told AFP residents should not engage with these sites and only refer to its official web page for relevant information.

"Welcoming the Holy Month of Ramadan 2025, the Ministry of Transportation of the Republic of Indonesia, in Collaboration with Other Government Agencies, Shares FREE TICKETS!!" reads a February 26 post on a Facebook page that claims to be the transport ministry.

"Let's Register and Claim Now!!" adds the post which links to a supposed sign-up page asking users to enter their name, travel itinerary and Telegram number.

Screenshot of the false post taken March 24, 2025

Similar offers claiming to be from Indonesia's Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) also surfaced as the archipelago gears up for "mudik", the annual exodus that millions in the country take to celebrate the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with their families.

So many people were making journeys home that the Indonesian navy previously deployed a battleship to transfer residents of capital Jakarta who failed to get tickets to the Javan cities of Semarang and Surabaya, according to local reports.

The Ministry of Transport and BUMN offer limited free trips in 2025 but the links circulating online are bogus (archived here and here).

Transport spokesperson Elba Damhuri told AFP on March 18 that registration for the government's free transport scheme is done via the ministry's official site (archived link).

BUMN spokesperson Putri Violla separately said the links shared on Facebook are "not registration links for the free mudik programme". The ministry does not ask for Telegram numbers for Indonesians signing up for the scheme.

The website for both agencies are hosted on a "go.id" domain but the links being shared online use .com or .xyz.

AFP has previously debunked other scam posts circulating in Indonesia.

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