Fake Kidnappings Spread

By LISA J. ADAMS The Associated Press

Published: May 26, 2007

MEXICO CITY - "Papa! Papa! Papa!" cried the male voice on Rodolfo Melchor's cell phone. Then a woman: "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," Guatemalan prison spokesman Nery Morales said.

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 because police are often unresponsive, inept or corrupt. 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 citizens group used polling to estimate that 36,295 kidnappings took place in the country in 2004. 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 cell phone, 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 new technology such as cell phones 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. Although an estimated 90 percent of victims don't report the crime, most experts agree that Mexico, along with Haiti and Colombia, is a world leader in kidnappings, and victims' relatives have so little faith in authorities that they usually try to resolve abductions on their own.