Legal Literacy - This article discusses the rise of fraud in online buying and selling because there are still legal loopholes in the regulations governing online transactions in Indonesia and will discuss how consumers can take precautions to be safer in online transactions.

Buying and selling transactions have evolved over time and it is now possible to carry out transactions electronically. As we know, there are various types of electronic transactions (e-commerce). The platforms that facilitate it are also increasing over time. However, legal violations regarding this matter are also increasing with various types.

The sale and purchase agreement itself, according to article 1457 of the Civil Code, is an agreement between the seller and the buyer where the seller binds himself to transfer his ownership of an item to the buyer, and the buyer binds himself to pay the price of the item. Regarding the validity of an agreement, we must look at article 1320 of the Civil Code which regulates the conditions for a valid agreement, including:

  1. Agreement of the parties
  2. Capacity to make an agreement
  3. A specific thing
  4. A lawful cause

Online buying and selling transactions can also be linked to Law No. 11 of 2008 concerning Electronic Information Technology (ITE) and to protect consumer interests, article 28 paragraph 1 of Law No. 11 of 2008 concerning ITE was created which explains that everyone intentionally and without rights disseminates false and misleading news which results in consumer losses in Electronic Transactions.

Even though it has been made in such a way regarding consumer protection and regulations regarding online buying and selling, many consumers are still being deceived in practice. This is because technology is increasingly developing and there are still insufficient regulations that truly protect consumers in online buying and selling practices. What often happens is fraud related to trading goods through social media. In this case, the fraudsters pretend to sell goods on their social media accounts and buy followers so that their accounts appear to have many followers. Buyers are also interested because the prices of the goods offered are usually slightly below the market, which attracts many people.

Fraudulent practices like this have been rife in recent years, but solutions to this problem have not yet been found. After transferring money to the seller, the buyer does not receive the goods and sometimes the buyer's account is immediately blocked by the seller and the seller runs away. As a buyer, they don't know what to do because the buyer doesn't know the seller's identity and even if they report it to the police, there is no further action regarding problems like this, especially if the transaction nominal is not too high.

One example of a case is the buying and selling of concert tickets, which is rife. The incident began when there was information regarding a concert by a famous singer who would be coming. Because the singer is quite famous, tickets are sold online and fought over by many people and there are still many people who have not gotten them. Then some people appeared on the social media Platform X saying that they were selling concert tickets. Many people were interested in buying the tickets because the price was still not much different from the official selling price. However, some time later many people posted about the fraud committed by the seller and there was more than 1 victim with total losses reaching tens of millions of rupiah. After investigation, it turned out that the seller's account was also an account purchased from other people and the ID card used was also someone else's ID card, so the victims could only surrender to this matter.

The case above is just one of many cases that occur every year and always exist every time an event occurs, especially music concerts, both local and international singer music concerts, but there is no legal umbrella that can truly protect consumers regarding this because the parties also do not know each other and it is done virtually. Therefore, what consumers can do at this time is prevention to minimize this, such as asking to meet in person or through a trusted and protected platform. It is also hoped that before we make an online transaction, we check whether the goods really exist and are really as desired and to really confirm the seller's identity properly if the transaction is carried out outside the buying and selling platform.

In conclusion, online buying and selling transactions are very helpful to the community, especially since transactions can now be carried out anywhere and anytime, but due to the rise of problems such as fraud in online buying and selling, the public should be more aware of the dangers of fraud in online buying and selling transactions. It is hoped that the public will only use platforms that are protected by the Financial Services Authority (OJK) because there will definitely be higher prevention of problems that may occur when transacting. Education related to this should also be a concern of the government so that this problem does not continue to increase every year and so that regulations are immediately made that regulate online transactions more strictly so that consumers are more protected in the future. If public education regarding the dangers of fraud in online buying and selling and knowledge of platforms that are protected for the community increases and is also accompanied by regulations that better protect consumers that have been made by the government, then the rate of fraud in online buying and selling transactions will decrease and it is hoped that the community's economy will also increase because more and more people feel protected in online buying and selling transactions and use them.