The caller who rang Valerie Sobel’s cellphone had a horrifying message: “We have Simone’s finger. Do you want to see the rest of her in a body bag?”
Then came the sound of her daughter, screaming in terror.
“She called me mom [and said]: ‘I’m terrified, please help,’” Sobel said.
In the hours that followed, the kidnappers talked her into wiring a ransom of US$4,000. Later she found out it was a scam.
“I was in bad shape for days,” she said.
On Tuesday, police and federal agents warned that so-called “virtual kidnappings” are on the rise and dozens of people already have found themselves terrorized into giving money to con artists.
Los Angeles police alone have received more than 250 reports of such crimes in the past two years and people have wired more than US$100,000, said Captain William Hayes, who commands the city’s Robbery Homicide Division.
By comparison, actual kidnappings for ransom are rare.
Los Angeles police typically receive 10 to 15 real cases per year, including kidnappings performed by other family members and acquaintances, Hayes said.
In the fake kidnappings, the callers demand that the victims remain on the telephone so they do not have a chance to call their loved ones, officials said.
“If you get a telephone call like this, immediately hang up,” Hayes said. “Contact that loved one.”
The FBI began investigating a spurt of cases in 2013.
A probe dubbed Operation Hotel Tango identified at least 80 people in several states who had received such calls, although not all sent money, said Gene Kowel, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s criminal division in Los Angeles.
However, many of the crimes go unreported, he said.
“It’s fair to say there have been thousands of calls made to US victims, primarily from Mexico,” he said.
Last week, a Texas woman became the first person in the US to be indicted in connection with a virtual kidnapping scheme.
Yanette Rodriguez Acosta, 34, of Houston is charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money. She is facing up to 20 years in prison for each of 10 counts if convicted.
The indictment alleges that Acosta and her partners used Mexican telephone numbers to call people in Texas, California and Idaho. They allegedly fooled people into giving them tens of thousands of US dollars either through money drops or wire transfers.
In some cases, the scammers choose area codes and make cold calls, hoping to catch an unsuspecting victim, officials said.
In others, the crooks might use social media to obtain names of children and other facts that can be used to frighten specific victims.
In Sobel’s case, she believes the phony kidnappers obtained her daughter’s voice, perhaps from her voicemail and then altered it.
“I was convinced that this was real,” she said.
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