A Chinese exchange student who fell victim to a “cyberkidnapping” scam in which his parents were extorted for US$80,000 was found alive, but “cold and scared” in a tent in the Utah wilderness, police said.
Kai Zhuang, aged 17, was reported missing on Thursday last week after his parents in China told officials at his host high school in Riverdale, Utah, that he appeared to have been kidnapped and a ransom had been requested.
The case followed a typical pattern for cyberkidnapping, in which “kidnappers” tell a victim to isolate and provide pictures of oneself as if being held captive — photographs that are then sent to the victim’s family to extort a payment.
Photo: AFP / Riverdale Police Department
The victims comply under the belief their family would otherwise be harmed.
After analyzing bank records, purchases and telephone ping records in a days-long search, police became convinced he was isolating in a tent about 40km north in a large area near Brigham City.
“Due to the cold weather in Utah this time of year, we became additionally concerned for the victim’s safety in that he may freeze to death overnight,” Riverdale Police Department said in a statement after he was found on Sunday.
A sergeant hiking on foot up a mountainside discovered Zhuang’s tent — which had no heat source, but only “a heat blanket, a sleeping bag, limited food and water, and several phones that were presumed to be used to carry out the cyberkidnapping,” the department said.
The detective “contacted the victim inside the tent and found he was alive, but very cold and scared,” it said.
After being rescued, Zhuang “requested a warm cheeseburger” and to speak to his family, which had paid US$80,000 to bank accounts in China during the scam, police said.
Zhuang’s host family in Riverdale had initially been unaware he was missing, having heard him in the kitchen in the early morning the day of his disappearance.
Riverdale police worked with the FBI, the US embassy in China and Chinese officials to find the missing teenager, the statement said.
The Chinese embassy in Washington warned its citizens living in the US to “boost safety awareness, take necessary precautions, and stay vigilant against ‘virtual kidnapping’ and other forms of telecom and online fraud,” a spokesperson said.
Cyberkidnappers have been targeting foreign-exchange students, and in particular Chinese foreign-exchange students, police said.
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