Terrorist Kidnapping scam

[Victory]

Just a heads up for all of you. I will give as much info as I can, without going into details.

One of our soldiers received a phone call while at the range from a man with a middle eastern accent. He said he had his wife and was going to kill her if he didn't wire him money. Of course with everything going on right now, this soldier was alarmed. The caller had descriptions of his wife, her friends name, her description, her vehicle type, vehicle color, and the fact that it still had paper tags on it. The soldier was able to stay calm, and pass information to other soldiers while his phone was on mute so they could call cops and get them to his house. The caller hung up after the CO got on the phone.

The wife was fine, agencies were called to investigate. Soldier was shaken up by the whole incident, but did a great job of dealing with it while it was going on. I wouldn't have done as well.


We have determined that it was a random scam, that uses Facebook and other public information to make the call seem real. The scam has been going on for a while and was used near the border on doctors, by people posing as cartel members; I guess they have moved to a middle eastern threat now.

So watch what information you guys are putting out there, predators are everywhere.

 

[drafter]

Just one more reason I see absolutely NO REASON to use Facebook, MYSPACE or any social media. But that's just me.

 

[Doc68]

Just one more reason I see absolutely NO REASON to use Facebook, MYSPACE or any social media. But that's just me.

Yup!

 

[SMM123]

People scream for privacy, then post their lives on Facebook...

 

[snipe10]

I agree, stay off social media

 

[drafter]

Bought enough synthetic oil to change both vehicles out this weekend. It comes with a "gift card" for $20.00, IF I sign into their websight and enter all needed info. I'm not sure I even want to do that for all the junk mail I'll start getting and having to give them who knows what other info to get a measly $20.00 gift card. I digress.

 

[Trevor300wsm]

So much to this......

It makes lifeless losers feel special and important to post their every waking moment on Facebook.

 

[sophia]

Thanks for the heads up! I wouldn't want to go through such a horrible experience. It's terrible how these scammers are able to call people and put up stories just like that. We should all remain vigilant against phone scams.

 

[sophia]

I found similar complaints on a related phone scam lodged at Callercenter that targeted the seniors. It's called the grandparent scam that begins with something most grandparents don't find anything suspicious about: a phone call from a grandchild. But it always ends with a desperate request for money and unfortunately, a lot of seniors already fell to the scheme.

 

[Guest]

We have a "safe word" for that very reason

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Back in the '90's, when I was making a living doing systems support work, I took a step back and considered the idea whether personal information could be safeguarded.

My conclusion was that once people began baring their souls on the 'net, that train had already left the station.

Greg

 

[Forgetful Coyote]

Back in the '90's, when I was making a living doing systems support work, I took a step back and considered the idea whether personal information could be safeguarded.

My conclusion was that once people began baring their souls on the 'net, that train had already left the station.

Greg

No doubt about it. Keep yall`s distance from social sites like facebook. Aint nothing good coming from doing something like that. A shame that we have so many attention whores, personally I like staying low. Usually a good habit to have whether you aint got nothing to hide or do.

Some kids up here in the big city dont even know how to have a face-to-face conversation without tripping all over themselves and awkwardin up the situation LOL I reckon social media`s to blame, that and communicating with text messages 99% of time.