There’s nothing more terrifying for a parent than thinking that their child is missing or has been kidnapped, which is why kidnapping crimes tend to evoke massive public sympathy.

The ongoing coverage of the Maddie McCann case is evidence of this.

Now criminals are capitalising on a combination of fear and new technology to scam parents out of thousands of dollars by convincing them that their kids have been taken.

CNN reports that scammers are using a form of robo-calling that lets a criminal alter what number it appears they are calling from, so that it looks like it’s coming from the child’s phone.

They can then use that number, combined with personal information they find online, to fake a situation like a kidnapping.

“We’ve seen an uptick in virtual kidnappings in the past few years because the crime is lucrative and there’s not a lot detection from law enforcement,” Matthew Horton, the FBI’s international violent crimes unit chief, who’s been closely following virtual kidnappings, told CNN Business. “It’s a quick way to make money — and it’s a lot easier to conduct a virtual kidnapping than a real one.”

The scam involves a call placed from a voice-over-IP service, such as Skype, or a specialised app that allows users to enter any host number they want.

The incidents can leave victims bilked out of up to thousands of dollars and emotionally shaken. Because a scammer knows a potential victim is more likely to pick up if they recognize the caller, they might enter a number they think is in their target’s address book.

…In some cases, victims say they hear screams in the background pretending to be from a daughter or son. Another spoofing scam targets parents and grandparents who are asked to bail their child out of jail.

But Horton noted the majority of virtual kidnapping scams that he sees aren’t targeted: “Many of these cases are done at random based on cold-calling numbers, even hotel rooms or wealthy area codes, and using social media posts to search for more information.”

Most people will report the scam to local authorities, or not at all due to embarrassment, but authorities are urging them to come forward.

To read the full story, including victim accounts, go here.

[source:cnn]