{"id":4096,"date":"2014-08-20T07:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=4096"},"modified":"2014-08-20T07:00:33","modified_gmt":"2014-08-20T12:00:33","slug":"virtual-kidnapping-taking-the-phone-scam-up-a-notch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2014\/08\/20\/virtual-kidnapping-taking-the-phone-scam-up-a-notch\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Kidnapping: Taking the Phone Scam up a Notch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/08\/vk1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4097\" src=\"http:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/08\/vk1.jpg\" alt=\"VK1\" width=\"191\" height=\"122\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#ff0000;\"><strong><a style=\"color:#ff0000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ksat.com\/content\/pns\/ksat\/news\/2014\/08\/07\/fbi-says--virtual-kidnapping--scams-now-targeting-doctors.html\u00a0\">http:\/\/www.ksat.com\/content\/pns\/ksat\/news\/2014\/08\/07\/fbi-says&#8211;virtual-kidnapping&#8211;scams-now-targeting-doctors.html\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Phone scams are nothing new; they have been around about as long as the phone has been in existence. But criminals are an adaptive species of virus; constantly looking for new ways to exploit human frailties. In the savage and violent world in which we now live, <strong>FEAR<\/strong>\u00a0can spread like a cancer, especially when everyday we are inundated with murder, rape and kidnappings on television and the internet. These criminals know that if they can <strong>SCARE<\/strong> somebody enough not to question the validity of a \u00a0threat and by consequence make them act out of <em>moral reflex<\/em>\u00a0to try to<em>\u00a0<\/em>avoid violence. If this can be accomplished,\u00a0money can be made easily. This is how Virtual Kidnapping works.<\/p>\n<p>It is no surprise that this scam started in Mexico, where <span style=\"color:#ff0000;\"><a style=\"color:#ff0000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.vocativ.com\/underworld\/crime\/places-youre-likely-get-kidnapped-vacation\/#!bGkI1g\"><strong>REAL KIDNAPPINGS<\/strong><\/a><\/span> still happen at an endemic rate. Last year alone, the <em>reported kidnappings<\/em> in Mexico were 1,583. It is interesting to note, that this stat, like almost all other crime statistics in Mexico (including Murder) is highly skewed and suspect; after all, in a society where &#8220;snitches&#8221; and people with loose lips typically end up in snuff films or be-headed on the side of the road, what get&#8217;s <strong>&#8220;REPORTED&#8221;<\/strong> is relatively always<strong> LOW or NON-EXISTENT.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To get an ideal of how these creeps work, consider these <span style=\"color:#ff0000;\"><strong><a style=\"color:#ff0000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.borderlandbeat.com\/2012\/10\/living-in-mexico-with-virtual.html\">transcripts<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>from Mexico recorded in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Indicators that you are being scammed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Incoming calls made from an outside area code<\/li>\n<li>Multiple successive phone calls<\/li>\n<li>Calls do not come from the kidnapped victim\u2019s phone<\/li>\n<li>Callers go to great lengths to keep you on the phone<\/li>\n<li>Callers prevent you from calling or locating the \u201ckidnapped\u201d victim<\/li>\n<li>Ransom money is only accepted via wire transfer service<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Tips on what to do during the Call:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Stay calm<\/li>\n<li>Slow the situation down<\/li>\n<li>Avoid sharing information about you or your family during the call<\/li>\n<li>Listen carefully to the voice of the kidnapped victim<\/li>\n<li>Attempt to call or determine the location of the \u201ckidnapped\u201d victim<\/li>\n<li>Request to speak to the victim<\/li>\n<li>Ask questions only the victim would know<\/li>\n<li>Request the kidnapped victim call back from his\/her cell phone<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All of these were taken directly from the<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fbi.gov\/sanantonio\/press-releases\/2014\/virtual-kidnapping-extortion-calls-on-the-rise\"> FBI&#8217;s website<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>which also has all of the contact numbers for FBI field offices in the South Texas area.<\/p>\n<p>Stay Frosty, Stay Armed and Stay Dangerous!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; http:\/\/www.ksat.com\/content\/pns\/ksat\/news\/2014\/08\/07\/fbi-says&#8211;virtual-kidnapping&#8211;scams-now-targeting-doctors.html\u00a0 Phone scams are nothing new; they have been around about as long as the phone has been in existence. But criminals are an adaptive species of virus; constantly looking for new ways to exploit human frailties. In the savage and violent world in which we now live, FEAR\u00a0can spread like a cancer, especially&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[13,74],"tags":[1052,1053,100,1054,1055,1056],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}