I had the fright of my life

[Carmen Ovsiannikov]

The police just left, they took all the data we could give them, but I dont believe it´ll do any good , the phone that called was a cel that´s off.
We are driving dad home and spending the night at my parents house, he has heart issues so we rather stay there until he feels better (he is still shaken even after talking to my sister, he says that the woman on the phone crying sounded like her, begging for her life)

I cant believe how evil some people can be

Citlali, people can be very evil. If it's any consolation to your Dad, like BittyBug I've heard of these type of scams as well and the woman "screaming" in the background was in on it and obviously a very good actress; not in any real danger at all. What scum these people are.

I'm glad it turned out to be a hoax and your sister is okay even though your family is shaken up. Terrible.

[Twilight1]

It is mind boggling the things people can and will do for money. Glad your sis is okay, if it happened to me I would be terrified.

[Buzz]

Glad it was just a hoax but you and your family should be very careful and I will say a prayer that you stay safe!!!

[myhoneyhoney]

(((Citlali & family))) I'm very happy to read that your sister is ok! I can't believe how cruel some people can be. Really, they can't even be called "people"

[overedge]

How horrible! (((Citlali and family))) I'm glad your sister is safe.

^^this. What a scary story!!

[oleada]

((((Citlali & family))))

I can't imagine the heartbreak that must have caused. It's so angering how common this scam is.

[moebius]

How did they know that your father had a daughter? What happens if he didn't? It would be really obvious that it was a hoax.

[BigB08822]

So scary! I worked at the deaf relay and would have to often relay scam calls. It was awful because I could not step in and warn the caller as we had to say only what was typed to us. So glad your sister is OK!

[cruisin]

How did they know that your father had a daughter? What happens if he didn't? It would be really obvious that it was a hoax.

I imagine they take a shot, if there is no daughter or the daughter is known safe, they just hang up. We, when we answer phones, also give information without thinking. I had a situation (26 years ago) where I was getting very scary sexual phone calls. I answered the phone and the person said guess who. It sounded like this guy I hadn't seen in years (who had a very distinct voice) and I said - Ken how are you. Well the guy became Ken and he chatted as Ken for a bit. I stupidly said I'd just had a baby and that I was not working at the time. When he started saying horrible things, I knew it wasn't Ken, but I unwittingly gave him information. This was before caller ID, so if I was home I answered the phone. Because I told him I wasn't working he called during the day, when my husband wasn't home. The police said they couldn't do anything, because I had not been threatened - yeah threats of rape aren't threatening . Well one day he called and my husband was unexpectedly home, he never called again. It just shows that you have to be very careful what you say and be sure you're talking to who you think you are.

Citlali - How is your Dad today?

[Citlali]

Citlali - How is your Dad today?

Hi, thanks you all for your good thoughts; my dad is better, we are all at work, last night he had a rise in his blood pressure but this mornig is normal (for him).

We are used to tell everyone (patients, coworkers, etc) about my sister and her work, how is she doing and the problems she has living in extremely poor conditions; my dad is really proud of her so he talks about her all the time, so it doesn`t surprise me that someone could found out that she is not in Lima; sometimes you just talk about yourself or your family not realizing just how much are you saying or what information are you giving.

Thank God she rented a satellite phone, last night we all talked and are better now.

[DAngel]

It just shows that you have to be very careful what you say and be sure you're talking to who you think you are.

Your story reminds me of Ore-ore sagi that was happening a lot in Japan a couple of years ago. (According to this article still a problem today.)

[zippy]

Wow, this exact same thing happened to my mother back in the 70's (it was my father that the guy claimed to have kidnapped). The guy knew all kinds of creepy details about their lives, maybe even what she was wearing that day, and he said he'd kill him and then her if she called the police. so she just hung up and called my dad, who was at work, oblivious about the whole thing! Luckily, they never had any trouble again and I very sincerely hope that's the case for your family too. What despicable people there are in the world .

[skatesindreams]

This is a variation of something that happened to me, last year.

Someone e-mailed all of my contacts (mostly on Skating related boards) that I was in Europe, and my life was in danger unless a large sum of money was wired to a particular account - immediately.

The culprits hacked my e-mail; so that what they wrote would seem as though it had "the ring of truth". Fortunately, no one sent any money.

Some of my friends on this board investigated. In my case, the "Nigerian Scammers" appear to have been responsible,
I reported it to the FBI - along with the contact information.
However, because no money changed hands; as far as I know, they did nothing - even though my life was threatened.

I had to set up new accounts and notify everyone concerned,
I'm grateful there were no other consequences,

[ArtisticFan]

How did they know that your father had a daughter? What happens if he didn't? It would be really obvious that it was a hoax.

In some circumstances these people will do preliminary call posing as a survey taker. Through that they can get demographic information, including number of people living in the house, etc. There are also full market lists that can be bought or hacked online.

I had someone call the other night begging to speak to my mother and saying that he was in danger. He called her by name and seemed to be in tears over the need to speak to her. It was quite strange, as my mother doesn't have a common name here in the US and knows nobody where I live. I finally hung up and called my mother about the situation. She was at a loss as to what was going on.

In talking to the police I have met through a recent incident, they suggested I ask if she had recently used our (hubby and my) number for anything. Turns out that she had signed up for some contest where she needed to leave a local number so she used ours. Whoever this was must have gotten the number and name from that.

[beepbeep]

This is quite a common prank here in Brazil.
Prisioners call from cell phones (BTW, cell phones are illegal in jails...) that were sotlen and get in the prision in some way. They'll sometimes call numbers at random saying they have someone's child/wife/husband/sister/etc. and ask for ransom money. Most of the times they use the info on the phone's contact list, which why you should never ifentify a number as Mom or Dad or something like that.
Once my mom got a call like this from a phone with a northeast area code (we live in the south) saying if she didn't pay an amount of money, they would kill her husband. Slight detail: my parents have been divorced for the past 25 years. She told the guy to go ahead and kill him because he was such a pain and hung up. Of course, she called my dad immediately just to be on the safe side.

The police here almost never checks these things.
The general instruction is to ask the caller for the name of the person (they probably won't say it or will try to guess a name) and/or hang up immediately and try to contact the person that was allegedly kidnapped.

Citlali, I hope you and your family are better now, and recovering from this.