Grants / Department of State / U.S. Mission to Indonesia

PAS-JAKARTA-FY26-04: Escape The Hack: Countering Cyber Scams with an Immersive Experience for Everyday Indonesians

Closed Closed August 7, 2026 Opportunity PAS-JAKARTA-FY26-04 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. Who won this program's grants before is below, and similar open grants are at the end of the page. It is in our archive of U.S. Mission to Indonesia notices from 2026.

• Award ceiling$300,000
• Award floor$100,000
• Total funding$300,000
• Expected awards1
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeCooperative Agreement

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to the applicants described in the notice.

• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)

Eligible ApplicantsThe following organizations are eligible to apply:● Not-for-profit organizations, including think tanks and civil society/non-governmental organizations, foundations● Public and private educational institutions● Individuals● Public International Organizations and Governmental institutionsFor-profit entities, even those that may fall into the categories listed above, are not eligible to apply for this NOFO.

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past Public Diplomacy Programs awards averaged $26,570; this notice allows up to $300,000 per award.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

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.

Category: Other.

Applying now

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