ST. LOUIS_Nancy McGowan answered her phone and a man said he had her daughter and that he was not joking. But he didn't, and by the end of the scam she had wired him $4,800. It was what police call virtual kidnapping for ransom.
McGowan, of St. Louis County, is embarrassed but wants other people to beware and not get tricked as she was.
It all began on a Tuesday morning when McGowan's phone rang. "I heard this screaming and it sounded like my daughter," she recalled.
She said the man threatened to cut off body parts.
She said she knew that her college-age daughter had taken a trip with friends to Gulf Shores, Ala.
While on the phone with the man she thought was a kidnapper, she didn't know she could have texted while she talked to him on the phone to verify her daughter's whereabouts.
She stayed on the phone with him and drove to two stores in south St. Louis where she wired him money.
Shortly before wiring an additional $5,000 from a bank, she received a text from her older daughter saying her sister was safe and to hang up, it was a hoax.
McGowan was later told that the culprit had scammed at least 80 people. She was devastated and embarrassed. She said when someone is making a threat against your child, your inclination is to try to bring them home safely.
"I hope others will read about this, and know that you can text while on (the) phone to avoid what I went through," she said.
The FBI is doing an awareness campaign to stop the losses in these scams.
Law enforcement agencies have been aware of virtual kidnapping fraud for at least two decades, the FBI website says, but the cases used to be limited to Mexico and Southwest border states. Now potential victims may be anywhere in the U.S.
Although virtual kidnapping takes many forms, it is always an extortion scheme _ one that tricks victims into paying a ransom to free a loved one they believe is being threatened with violence or death.
Unlike traditional abductions, virtual kidnappers have not actually kidnapped anyone. Instead, through deceptions and threats, they coerce victims to pay a quick ransom before the scheme falls apart.
Zachary Lowe, acting special agent in charge of the FBI, said some victims are embarrassed and do not report the scam after they pay the money. Lowe said victims should report the crime to help catch the scammer and prevent others from being victimized.
Sometimes scammers call from Mexico. They get information from social media about a person traveling in Mexico, then contact a family member claiming the person has been kidnapped. The scammers try to keep the relative on the phone so that they cannot verify their loved one's whereabouts.
Once the money is wired, there is little the FBI can do.
"Most victims will lose that money," he said.
He recommends texting the loved one while the scammer is on the phone or writing a note to someone to check on the relative or call police or the FBI. Once the relative verifies that the family member is OK, the relative should hang up the phone and give the phone number from caller ID to law enforcement.
