Originally published at: Teenage victim of "cyber-kidnapping" found alone in remote mountains - Boing Boing
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I’m still trying to wrap my head around this scam. So the perpetrators deceive both the victim and the victim’s family: convincing the victim (somehow?) that they have to go off the grid for a few weeks, and then telling the family that they have been kidnapped and need to pay ransom money?
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The part I really don’t understand is driving the victim off-grid. That seems like a lot of complexity for little advantage vs. just threatening someone unless they pay up; or telling someone’s family that you’ve kidnapped them and they’d better not talk to the cops or try to reach them or else; but just not bothering with the kidnapping.
I assume that there is some logic I just do recognize; but it seems very over complicated.
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It sounds like the victim drove himself off grid, that there isn’t any physical interactions between the kidnappers and the victim, but only electronic interactions.
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Probably to avoid possible random connection that would lead to exposing the scam. An elderly relative decides to make a once in a decade phone call? All is revealed!
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This kind of thing has been done in Canada (usually Chinese students) for some years now. They threaten the student and make threats against the student’s family back in China family to force the student to go into hiding, then threaten the family and collect a ransom.
Are you going to not go into hiding and let some gang back in China kill your family? Hey, maybe they won’t do it; it’s probably a scam and they wouldn’t go through with it. So you’d do that, you’d make that call, assume thugs won’t harm your family? Or you could go to the police (sure) in the country you’re in and see if they’ll help without making the problem worse. Assuming they take it seriously. Assuming you trust police and government agencies in foreign countries.
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Wondering if all phones/email systems will eventually come with a defensive AI filter that could say “this email/text/call meets the parameters of an AI produced extortion threat, and your family/ loved ones are not in any danger. Probably.”.
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Jadzia Dax from the Past Tense episode of DS9… with the tech dude bro who shut off the internet to keep messages from people in sanctuary district that saw the Bell uprisings from getting out to the public…
I took it from here:
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Agreed.
Which is why I am staunchly against having an admittedly flawed program attempt to do it instead.
It goes without saying;
It’s y’all’s “free” ‘ice cream stand,’ so obviously, y’all can do whatever you like with it.
I know what my options are if I don’t like the direction you all decide to go in, and I have my contingencies already in place.
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
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What it does is make sure that the “kidnapped” one can’t be contacted by their family and reveal that they are safe. AND it keep them from confiding in anyone local and finding out that it’s probably a scam.
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Ah, DS9, in fact, most of Star Trek, apart from TOS (the first time around), is something I’ve barely sampled.
I do feel I’m missing out.
Still, cool avatar, cool reason.
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If you’re gonna watch a whole Star Trek series, that’s the one to watch… It’s my personal fave.
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