Eight students in the state of New South Wales (NSW) were the targets of “virtual kidnapping” scams this year, with foreign relatives paying a total of A $ 3.2 million ($ 2.3 million) in ransom, Police said in a statement.
In one case, the father of a 22-year-old Chinese student in Sydney gave up more than $ 1.4 million after receiving a video of his daughter at an unknown location.
Another family in China paid more than $ 14,000 after receiving a video of their 22-year-old relative tied up and blindfolded through the WeChat messaging app. New South Wales police found her safe in a hotel room.
Student victims are “traumatized by what happened, believing that they have put themselves and their loved ones in real danger,” NSW Assistant Commissioner Peter Thurtell said in a statement.
NSW police said the scammers were targeting vulnerable members of the Sino-Australian community, such as international students who live away from friends and family in an unfamiliar environment.
CNN has contacted the Australian Federal Police for further comment.
What is virtual hijacking?
Here’s how the scam works: First, scammers make calls to random numbers, often speaking Mandarin. This acts as a kind of filter: Australians who don’t understand Chinese often hang up, while international Chinese students respond in Mandarin.
Scammers often use technology to mask their physical location and program the host number, so it appears that the call is coming from the actual Chinese authorities. If victims search online for the caller’s phone number, it will match the number of the Chinese police or embassy, said Dr. Lennon Chang, a tenured professor of criminology at Monash University in Australia.
The scam can go one of two ways, according to the NSW police statement. In one scenario, victims are threatened or forced to transfer money to offshore bank accounts.
In the other scenario, the victims are convinced to fake their own kidnappings, and their family is under pressure for money. In this case, the scammers order victims to cease contact with family and friends and to rent a hotel room for their own protection and safety. Victims are told to photograph themselves tied up and blindfolded, which are then sent to the victim’s family abroad.
When the family cannot contact their child in Australia, they send the ransom payment in exchange for the release of their child. The scammer continues to make threats and demand ransom until he cannot get more payments, at which point the victim’s family often reports the incident to police, the police statement said.
Authorities often end up finding the victim safe at home or in a hotel.
Why are Chinese students easy targets?
The scam, which has been reported in several other Australian states, such as Victoria and Queensland, works well by taking advantage of susceptible, young, and often protected foreign students.
“International students are the vulnerable group because they have no real support in this country,” said Chang. “For this type of scam, (the victims) don’t have a lot of experience with society, so they might believe in the so-called ’embassy people.'”
International students are also good targets because they have a home and family elsewhere, Chang said. For scammers, a good victim is “someone with a good connection to people in China, who have left China for a long time.”
“If you are an Australian-born Chinese and someone tells you that you are involved in organized crime in China, you would tell them to go away,” he added. “But if you are a Chinese international student, you could be concerned about your family, your situation, in your hometown.”
Among international students, Chinese students are also believed to be especially susceptible due to the authoritarian legal system of mainland China, under which activists, international organizations, and ordinary citizens face arrest, deportation, or other types of punishment for a wide range of crimes. .
Chinese students “tend to follow the authorities … they tend to believe that the government is always doing the right thing,” Chang said. “So when (the victims) have a phone call like this, especially when we have verified the number online, we tend to follow the instructions of the ’embassy people.’ It is definitely a cultural issue here.”
Subsequently, victims may be reluctant to report the incident due to shame or embarrassment, NSW police said.
“The scams take advantage of people’s trust in the authorities and the fear of doing something wrong,” the Australian Federal Police said in a statement. “Victims can feel a variety of emotions, from helplessness and humiliation to anger and guilt, but it is important to know that you are not to blame and that help is available.”
NSW police said they are working with the state government and the Chinese embassy in Australia to investigate and warn the community about these scams.
Authorities are urging students and other potential victims to report such calls to their universities, embassies, or local police, and to not respond to callers’ demands.
Scams around the world
While these types of scams have been reported for years, authorities said they appeared to be on the rise.
“Virtual kidnappings … have developed considerably during the last decade by transnational organized crime unions, “NSW Chief Superintendent of Detectives Darren Bennett said in a statement.
Last year, there were 1,172 reports of what police call a “Chinese authority” phone scam across Australia. It is unclear how many of these were attempts to coerce fake kidnappings or the other scenario of depositing money into accounts abroad, and if all were successful.
Authorities said the scammers attacked Chinese international students, in particular, but also tried Australian and international victims from non-English-speaking settings.
The 2019 scams saw a loss of more than A $ 2 million ($ 1.43 million), according to NSW police.
Similar scams have been reported across the United States, targeting Chinese students and other minorities.
That year in Canada, three students went missing in the Toronto area, prompting a city-wide search. They were later found by police, who said it was likely a fake kidnapping ordered by scammers.
“Our message today is one of prevention,” he said. “The overwhelming message is not to pay money … Call the authorities or just hang up.”
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