Police officials in the Triad area are reporting that citizens there are receiving calls from individuals who claim that they have kidnapped the call recipient’s child and will harm the child if ransom is not sent to them immediately. The calls sometimes feature other parties who can be heard in the background. One of them pretends to be the child, who is being roughed up and is pleading for the parent’s help. This scam has been reported in other parts of the country in recent weeks. The scammers appear to possess a great deal of information on the child (which can be an adult child) when they call. Their strategy is to shock and frighten the call recipient so badly that he or she will convey money to the scammers immediately rather than check on the child’s actual whereabouts.
In an article about the scam that was published yesterday in the News-Record of Greensboro, N.C., police advised recipients of such calls to hang up immediately and try to reach the child in question through their usual phone numbers, email addresses or other means of contact. This typically reveals that the child is at home or at work or in class. Such advice has helped others to avoid being scammed in the somewhat similar “Grandparent Scam,” where callers pretend to be the call recipients’ grandchildren and claim that they are languishing in jail overseas.

— article submitted
by Lou Parton