Kidnapped or Arrested Emergency Scam

By Dean Thompson

You have probably heard the stories of people being scammed when they get an urgent call claiming there is an issue with their grandson, grand daughter, nephew, niece, heck their own child that requires the grandparent to take immediate action to help them. This is commonly referred to as the kidnapped or arrested emergency phone call. The scammer claims to have one of your loved ones and play out the scenario that they have been arrested or kidnapped. I’ll unpack each variation under the assumption its your grandson, what to look for and what to do to avoid it. Please, please, please, share and discuss this with your Mom, Dad, Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts & Uncles.

Let’s start with the arrested use case. The grandparent either gets an email, text or phone call. In the case of a call, the caller usually calls late at night or early in the morning and claims to be from law enforcement or a lawyer and your grandson has been arrested and they need money for bail, fines or legal costs. They will tell you to keep quiet and to not tell anyone. There is a version of this where the grandchild talks first and then hands it to the “officer” but it’s done so fast the grandparent can’t be sure if it was their grandchild or not. They will create a sense of urgency that you act quickly to wire money. Some even get bold enough to get you to buy gift cards that they activate or get you to buy bitcoin through an ATM to send to them.

Flags for you:

  • Pressure to act urgently. These scammers are professionals and they want to keep you on the phone, make you feel as though you have to do something right away and they don’t want to let go of you until you do it. No law enforcement would do this, let alone insist on keeping you on the phone while you do it.

  • Wiring money, buying gift cards or buying bitcoin are also flags that this is not a real situation and you are dealing with a scammer. Wiring money and sending bitcoin are the same as giving cash. Once you have done it, its gone and you will never get it.

  • Anyone asking you to send money overseas, no matter how they are doing it is a scam.

  • These agencies are not going to call you to expect you to give money over the phone. Giving the money over the phone is another sign it’s a scammer.

What should you do?

  • First and foremost, establish a “safe word” for the family for situations like this. You ask the person to give the safe word and they are going to fail at that. BTW, do NOT discuss this word with other people, share it with friends or ever speak about it on social media, emails, text messages, etc. You determine this face to face, all together and do not share it with anyone else.

  • Try to contact the person yourself. The scammer will give a lot of reasons as to why you should not contact anyone but you need to resist and contact your grandchild. If you cannot contact them, then contact your child.

If you do get scammed, the FBI asks you to do the following:

Today the best way to protect your loved ones is with education. Please make a point to meet with the family and setup your safe word as well as educate them on this scam so the money they worked so hard for stays with them!