Terror Over the Phone: Virtual Kidnappings, Part 2

The Perfect Scam

AARP

True Crime, Society & Culture

4.5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2020

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In part two of this special two-part episode on virtual kidnappings, we speak with the FBI to discuss how these scams started, why they're so successful and what is being done to stop them. We talk to the FBI Special agent who cracked a virtual kidnapping ring, and — with virtual kidnappings on the rise in the U.S. — you'll learn what to do if you receive a call. Then, for the first time ever, fraud expert and our host Frank Abagnale and his son, FBI Special Agent Scott Abagnale, sit down to do an interview together. They talk about growing up in the Abagnale household, Scott's road to becoming an FBI agent, and what it was like when Frank taught one of Scott's classes at the FBI Academy.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week on AARP's The Perfect Scam.
0:03.0	It was really an aha moment where the FBI goes, wow.
0:06.0	The people making these phone calls all day, every day to the US
0:12.0	are in prison in Mexico City and they speak English. They speak
0:16.7	English very well and they're extorting US citizens over the telephone by literally saying they've kidnapped their son or
0:26.1	daughter.
0:31.1	Welcome back to AARP's The Perfect Scam. I'm Julie Gets and with me today is of course our
0:36.4	AARP ambassador and fraud expert Frank Abagnell. Frank it's always so good to see
0:41.0	you. Great to be with you dearly. Thank you.
0:42.8	Good. In the last episode we were talking about virtual kidnappings when a
0:47.6	scammer pretends to hold someone hostage to convince their victims to pay a
0:51.4	ransom in exchange for their loved ones
0:53.2	release. In this episode we're going to learn more about what law
0:56.6	enforcement is doing to crack down on these types of crimes. We also have a
1:00.4	special guest, someone that you know quite well, right? Yes. That's your son
1:05.4	Scott who is the unit chief of the FBI's Crisis Negotiations Unit. I'm
1:10.8	excited to speak with the two of you together and hear some stories about your family.
1:14.0	It would be great.
1:16.0	Okay, so last week we heard the story of a woman who almost was a victim of one of these virtual
1:21.2	kidnapping scams. When someone called to say that her daughter had
1:24.6	been abducted and was being held for ransom.
1:28.1	It was the worst fear and panic that I have ever felt.
	...

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