The Terrifying Kidnapping Hoax

A couple of years ago I wrote a post about the crying teenager hoax.  This is a scam in which a young person calls you in tears and pretends to be your child or grandchild.  They are crying so hard that it is difficult to make out what they are saying.  However, it is clear that they need you to wire them money right away in order to solve their problem.

You can see that article here:  http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com/2012/06/crying-teenager-phone-hoax.html

Now the scammers have stepped up the intensity of the calls to make them even more terrifying, so people are much more likely to rush to the bank and wire the money to the caller as quickly as possible.

It is called the Kidnapping Hoax.

These people have dropped to a new low.

Instead of a crying teenager, you get an ominous phone call from a person who claims to have kidnapped your child or grandchild and threatens to kill them if you do not send them money quickly.  In the background, you can hear what sounds like a child's voice crying and screaming "help me" or "don't hurt me."  Sometimes there are sounds that indicate the child is being beaten.  From what I have been told, the phone calls are truly heart-rending.

You can imagine how much your adrenalin would kick in if you received a phone call like this.  It would be hard to think straight.

Don't fall victim to this hoax.  If you EVER think someone you love may have been kidnapped, call the police.  Don't try to handle anything like this on your own.

Once you get the police involved, immediately write down everything you can remember about the call ... the phone number that showed up on your caller ID, any background noises you heard, whether the caller sounded like a man or woman, whether the teen voice in the background sounded like it was male or female, etc.

In addition, you will want to call all your relatives and, without alarming them, confirm that they are all OK.  You can even tell them that you received a "strange call" that you suspect was a wrong number, but you wanted to make sure it was not from them.  Doing this will put your mind at ease that your loved ones are alright, until the police can take over.

Do NOT wire money to these people.  It will only encourage them to keep committing this fraud and making these terrifying phone calls to other potential victims.

The only way to truly stop this type of crime is when people stop falling for it.

You are reading from the blog:  http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com

Photo credit:  www.morguefile.com