And one thing I do know is on the other side of the border, the big business for cartels is not just drug smuggling, human trafficking, none of that. It’s actually extortion, extorting businesses, extorting businesses, big bucks for the cartels. And I’m afraid now that I think we’re going to start seeing it here in America fairly soon, if we haven’t already. I also believe that as they take control of our police force, which they’ve done in Mexico and they’re doing here, we’re going to be in big, big trouble if something isn’t done fairly soon.

And I’m going to show you a new scam that they’re doing, which is a big scam. Let me pull up the video right here, or the article. It’s a sinister billion dollar cyber kidnapping scam, born in mexican prisons and perfected by chinese gangs, has now come to America. And there’s one foolproof way to protect yourself and your family. So you got to be watching this. Watch out for these scams, especially if you have kids.

If you have kids, you’ve got to pay attention to this. The call comes out of the blue. Perhaps you recognize the number we have. Your daughter. Shouts a strangely menacing voice on the line. Send us money or she dies. Then you hear your daughter saying, mommy, please help. Your heart stops. It is your child’s voice. How they pull this off, I’m not sure. Panicked. A family does whatever they’re told to secure their loved ones release from apparent kidnapping, including wiring tens of thousands of dollars immediately to a specified account or even dropping a bag of cash on a street corner.

Hours or even minutes later, the dust settles. And a bemused daughter on vacation in Mexico or skiing on a remote mountain slope would check their phone and learn of the chaos. The truth of the scam would sink in. No one was ever in any danger. I mean, they’re doing things related to this already. Like, my parents, who are elderly, get calls all the time from their bank, and they have to make a move on their account, and they got to do this.

And thank God my parents know better. But they almost fell for it the first couple of times before we had to sit them down and show them what was going on. So these type of scams are all over the place. I’m sure many of you know this of these scams, but this one in particular. This is called a virtual or cyber kidnapping, and it first emerged in the 1990s as a modern take on an old con.

Quite simply, it’s an extortion scheme that involves criminals convincing unsuspected people that their family members are in danger. Now, with the widespread availability of artificial intelligence, advanced video communications, and mobile phones, the swindle has morphed into something significantly more sophisticated, terrifying, and incredibly lucrative, to the tune of billions of dollars in illicit profits. I can’t believe they’re making that much. On New Year’s Eve, police in Utah rescued a 17 year old chinese exchange student who’d been convinced by criminals to run away from his american host family and confined himself to a tent in the snowflaked hills above the town of Riverdale.

There, he took fake ransom photos, which is tormentors sent to his family in China. So he was in on this. I don’t know what your situation is with your kids are if you have adopted kids, if you’re having trouble with your kids, but this is something you’ve got to watch out for. Or if your kids go to Mexico for vacations, they can hack their phones. His petrified parents paid 80,000 to secure his release, not realizing he was never actually being held, but rather brainwashed into willingly going along with the scam, serious parent issues or daddy issues.

They tell the victims to isolate themselves, and they monitor them through FaceTime calls or Skype, said Casey Warren, chief of Riverdell police. The victims comply out of fear their families will be harmed if they can. Okay, so I see that they get these victims and they say, hey, if you don’t do this, we’re going to hurt your family. It’s not exactly clear what these con artists told the teenager Kaizong that convinced him to believe such a bizarre ploy, but nonetheless, he apparently became an unwitting accomplice.

He was discovered by police very cold and scared and in what? A hot cheeseburger, but otherwise in wanting of a hot cheeseburger, but otherwise unharmed. Riverdale police said the crime was new to them, but fraudsters had been perfecting the scam for decades and more to come. Now that the borders are wide open, folks, you’re going to see a lot more of this. And what I’m worried about is the extortion of businesses, especially if they start controlling the police department.

Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, first came across the scheme in Mexico more than two decades ago. So this does happen in Mexico constantly. It became a cottage industry run by people both in and out of the mexican prison system, he told. com. Convicts would bribe prison guards to give them cell phones. Then the crooks would open the phone book and start calling numbers at random.

Criminals made money very quickly, and it was easy to do, explains Vigil. And when the scheme is successful, other criminal gangs notice and begin to copy it. By the mid two thousand s, the con had spread, and now it’s operated by syndicates out of China and the Philippines. I bet you they have huge call centers doing this. Police in Sydney and Australia noticed a surge in cyber kidnappings in 2020.

At least eleven cases with ransoms amounting to 2. 6 million. 2. 6 million chinese foreign exchange students were targeted and told by a mandarin speaking fraudster claiming to be from chinese government or police that there was a problem with their visa or passport. Man, these are getting really elaborate. Look at this. Wow. These are actual pictures preying on young chinese persons believe that they’re being watched by the state and their fear of overreaching power of the authorities.

They would comply. The marx were convinced to fake ransom photos, which weren’t sent to relatives. And what kind of climate do we have right now in America, folks? We don’t even know what to expect with everything happening at the border right now and everybody coming over. I just got a text from a friend that said there was military aged chinese men walking around in neighborhoods, going to doors, asking for water, in groups, groups of men walking around.

So we really don’t know what to expect right now. We are in uncharted waters. The images are shocking. A young man lies on the floor. A young woman lies on the floor, a blindfold over her eyes, hand seemingly bound behind her back with a large kitchen knife menacingly placed before her. A young man wearing only his underwear on a cold tile floor, his legs tied at the ankle rope.

Another woman is pictured on the ground with a torn clothing, hugging her knees to her chest. K. Young’s case in Utah bears strong resemblance to these australian scams and has led the chinese embassies in Washington DC, Sydney, and London this week to reiterate warnings to be wary. But these new age kidnappers are using ever more imaginative ways of tricking people. In April, an Arizona mother, Jennifer des Stefano, was called from an unknown number, while her 15 year old daughter Brianna was on a ski vacation.

She remembers hearing her own daughter’s voice crying and sobbing, saying, mom, these bad men have me. Help me. Help me. DeStefano said she had no doubt it was her child. It was her inflection. It was the way she would have cried, DeStefano recalls. I never doubted for 1 second it was her. That’s the freaky part that really got to my core. Yet it wasn’t Destafano’s Brianna. The scammers demanded 1 million, but Destafano’s husband managed to confirm Brianna was fine before they paid up.

The voice Jennifer Destano heard was likely generated by artificial intelligence. By employing deep fake technology, criminals can use even short snippets of videos posted on social media to create realistic imitations. So if any of you get these calls, you have got to call your family immediately. Check and make sure everyone’s okay. Do not give in and give money to any of these criminals. Chances are it’s a con.

Virtual kidnappers are also hacked into phone contact lists or trawled their victims social media to spin wildly convincing lies. Gosh, one Houston man in May 2020 had his phone hacked and received a call from his mother’s number. A voice on the other end said they had her and would harm her unless he transferred 900 by payment app Venmo, which he quickly did. Minutes later, his brother replied to his panic text and said their parents were sleeping upstairs.

Their phones were with him. Obviously this was a scam. God, if someone rings and asks for money, the best tactic is always to hang up, cybercrime expert Adamlevine told. com. Levine, host of the podcast what the hack, advised that one should immediately contact law enforcement and try to reach their loved one. He also suggests listening for tale signs of strange audio, perhaps repetition of raises and unusual pause, or taking over you or talking over you.

That may suggest that the chillingly familiar voice one hears is a pre recorded fake. I don’t know. Would you all fall for this? At least you guys are aware. At least I’m putting this out there. This is terrifying that they have the ability to do this using AI. What I’m more concerned about than this, once people understand how this is and the con in this game, what I’m concerned about is the extortion of businesses, creating a safe word that only family members know is foolproof safeguard, says Levine, asking a parent victim to recite the word or phrase if they can’t.

It’s a con above all else. Do not buy into the hysteria scammers always operate on theory of panic, cautions Levine. Keep calm. Wow, folks, we’re on uncharted waters here. It looks like things are getting real. And with the border wide open the way it is, anything’s possible. At least now you know that they’re using AI to con you. And these phone, uh, and they’re terrifying. This is uh, but what I think is even more terrifying is businesses being extorted, which they do in Mexico all the time.

So I think once they take control and they start putting their assets into the police force and they start controlling both sides of the game, next is going to be extorting businesses because the police won’t be able to do anything. Give me your thoughts down below. Let me know. This is common practice for cartels. This is common practice. So this is going to be new to America, and we’re in uncharted water.

So give me your comments down below. Tell me what you think. Did this video help you? I mean, at least now you’re aware that this is happening. All right, folks, take it easy. .