A specialized anti-kidnapping unit of the Ministerial Criminal Investigation Agency (Spanish acronym: FGJE) on Monday rescued two US citizens of Mexican origin from a virtual kidnapping at a hotel in the city of Hermosillo in the northwestern state of Sonora.
The victims, a male and female, were reported missing by family members in the United States who received phone calls demanding $80,000 for the couple’s release. The demand was eventually lowered to $5,000, a common tactic of virtual kidnapping gangs looking for a quick payout, typically through electronic cash transfer.
The anti-kidnapping unit reportedly traced the phone calls to a hotel room in Hermosillo. No payment was made to the scammers.
Virtual kidnappings continue to occur regularly throughout Mexico, with perpetrators becoming increasingly sophisticated.
In most cases, the victim initially receives a call in his or her hotel room — on the hotel phone. In some cases, however, perpetrators also have the victim’s cell phone number and use it for the initial contact or a follow-on contact.
Though most virtual kidnapping gangs are believed to work from Mexican prisons, they increasingly use local contacts on the outside, often hotel employees, to support their plots.
Desk clerks and/or other hotel employees often are complicit in the scams. They identify potential victims to the perpetrators and provide room and cell phone numbers. (They often have access to cell phone numbers because travelers have provided them when making their reservations, or because they have furnished them on profiles solicited by hotel chains.)
In one twist, a hotel employee in on the plot knocks on the target’s door, hands him a cell phone and tells him that someone is calling for him.
In some recent cases, perpetrators have gone so far as to place accomplices inside victims’ hotel rooms for periods of up to several hours. In the cases with which this service is familiar, the accomplices have not been armed.
Victims are instructed to supply callers with the names and phone numbers of relatives or employers prepared to ransom them. Relatives or employers often are instructed to wire ransoms to bank accounts or make wire transfers to convenience stores.
Perpetrators normally go to great lengths to ensure that they have neutralized all of the intended victim’s means of communication, so victims cannot independently contact employers or loved ones. (In fact, victims often can contact employers or relatives via text even if engaged in conversation with scammers on their cell phones without the knowledge of the scammers.)
In many cases, initiators of virtual kidnappings use three-way calling features to make it appear to relatives or employers that they are present with the victim. They sometimes direct victims to take photos of themselves with their hands seemingly tied behind their backs.
Callers in most cases identify themselves as cartel operatives or police. They are neither, of course. They are scammers.
Victims are threatened with mutilation, torture or death if they fail to comply.
Most victims are Mexicans or Spanish-speaking foreigners. Both men and women are targeted.
Employees traveling within Mexico should receive training in the recognition of a virtual kidnapping.
Under no circumstances should they provide their cell phone numbers when making hotel reservations. Nor should they include cell phone numbers in profiles they provide to hotel chains. Generic company numbers should be provided instead. Other personal information should be withheld. Personnel who have already provided cell phone numbers to hotel-chains for profiles should make certain to change those numbers. If a number cannot be changed on a profile, they should obtain a new cell phone with a different number.
Personnel should not accept calls on their hotel-room phones. Nor should they accept calls on cell phones that are not theirs or from numbers unknown to them.
Managers who learn of virtual kidnappings—usually from victims’ relatives—should contact security professionals immediately. In most cases, they will mobilize police contacts to “release” the victim.
