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 News from Around the Americas | May 2007 
'Virtual Kidnappings' Evoke Real Fear
 Lisa J. Adams - Associated Press
Mexico City - "Papa! Papa! Papa!" cried the voice on Rodolfo Melchor's cellphone. Then: "Honey, it's me, I've been kidnapped!"
The office machine repairman, on a break at work, dialed police and sprinted home, finding after the most harrowing 30 minutes of his life that his family was just fine.
Melchor had avoided falling victim to a "virtual kidnapping," a scheme aimed at quickly extracting ransom without an actual abduction. The weapon used is not a gun or a knife, but a telephone.
"My head was spinning," said the 38-year-old Melchor. "My son and my wife had never called me crying like that. And I didn't recognize the difference in the woman's voice from that of my wife because I was in shock."
Anyone with a telephone is at risk in Latin American countries including Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Guatemala, where high crime rates lead people to think the worst when a supposed kidnapper calls.
"They make them believe they know everything they do, where their children study, where they work and all their daily movements," said Guatemalan prison spokesman Nery Morales.
Reliable statistics don't exist because most police forces register virtual kidnappings as robberies or assaults. Many victims also don't come forward at all. Some people fear revenge for going public, while others are embarrassed about falling for the hoax.
But anecdotal evidence suggests virtual kidnappings are big business. In the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, police reported at least 3,000 virtual kidnapping complaints between Jan. 1 and Feb. 14. A Mexican citizen's group used polling to estimate that in 2004, 36,295 kidnappings took place in the country. They haven't reported newer data.
The criminals often get household details by hacking into databases or posing as service workers. Then they monitor the family's habits and choose a moment when the family is separated to make the call demanding money.
Others simply steal a cellphone, dial the preprogrammed number for "home," "mom" or "dad," and tell whoever answers that a kidnapping is in progress.
Virtual kidnappings have surged partly because criminals are increasingly adept at using technology such as cellphones and computer databases, said Alejandro Zunca, a consultant who advises Brazilian and Argentine police. Criminals of all stripes also have embraced the scheme because it can be carried out from behind bars.
Another reason is that real kidnappings are so frequent. Most experts agree that Mexico, along with Haiti and Colombia, is a world leader in kidnappings, and victims' relatives usually try to resolve abductions on their own.
Criminals carrying out virtual kidnappings usually demand cash. In Guatemala, the amount ranges from $600 to $1,200, while in Mexico it starts at about $50 and reaches into the thousands of dollars.
The "kidnappers" either tell the victim to deposit money in a bank account or to drop off cash. In Argentina, kidnappers sometimes actually abduct the person making the drop to seek additional ransom.
Prisoners also carry out virtual kidnappings, either lining up associates on the outside to collect the money, or ordering victims to buy dozens of prepaid cellular phone cards whose codes can be relayed by telephone. The prisoners then charge fellow inmates exorbitant rates to use their cellphones.
The perpetrators' biggest advantages are time and fear: Their goal is to get the ransom while the victim is still in shock and less likely to think critically.
While Melchor never paid any ransom money, he suffered greatly. When he got home, his wife was hysterical - police officers who responded to the call were confused and told her Melchor had been kidnapped.
The stress can be fatal: In March, a 71-year-old man died of a heart attack after paying nearly $1,000 to Argentine virtual kidnappers who said they had abducted his son.
But people are also wising up. Many are taking preventive measures, such as erasing children's pictures from cellphones, not revealing family information over the telephone and creating codes that relatives can use if they are abducted.
Authorities have taken measures to combat the crime - Mexico and Guatemala have banned cellphones in prisons, and even tried to jam the signals.
Mexico has set up a virtual kidnapping hot line and set up a recording to warn people when they are getting a call from a public phone in a prison to help people know when they are being duped.
Mexico: Victims´ Relatives Involved in Kidnappings
Prensa Latina
Mexican police authorities affirmed today that abductions with ransom money have been found to be mostly promoted by victims´ relatives.
The anti-kidnapping department of the office of the Federal District Attorney Jesús Jiménez, told reporters that participation of close relatives of the victims appear ever more frequently as masterminds and direct perpetrators of abductions.
Such modus-operandi is known here as "phenomenon of treason" and almost always involves a cousin, uncle, friend or neighbor who knows the activities, schedule, customs and economic operations of the victim.
According to Jimenez, among the causes triggering those crimes are the economic disparity, drug addiction, lack of moral values, social decomposition and violence.
The official explained that 90 per cent of the parents promoting or participating directly in an abduction are men and only in the Federal District were registered 996 crimes of that nature over the last seven years.
At least 52 persons lost their lives since the year 2000, as a result of failed negotiations or inexperience of the criminals, who decided to kill their victims in order not to be identified.
Victims are currently the children or spouse instead of the head of the family, previously the target preferred by kidnappers, said Jimenez.
Over the last few years, at least 93 kidnapping gangs were disarticulated, giving way to inexperienced young criminals who mostly use excessive violence. |
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