Andy and his wife, Bridgett, say they've never
been so frightened than when a scammer recently posed
as a kidnapper who claimed he was holding their daughter,
Sam, hostage for ransom money.
Now, they say the only reason Bridgett
answered her phone is because it rang
with their daughter's name, number, and ringtone.
So there's not any reason in the world
you would think it's not her, right?
Right.
There are some red flags, and you guys
have helped us identify these.
Number one, they insisted that you stay on the phone.
They tried to prevent you from contacting
the kidnapped victim in any way,
they convey a great sense of urgency.
It was like, you do this right now.
I mean, this was a matter of minutes, seconds, right?
Right. Yes.
And they demand for ransom money to be paid
by a wire transfer to Mexico.
And the ransom amounts demands sometimes
will drop quickly if there's an obstacle.
Just send us what you have, get this quick,
because they know time is their enemy
'cause it gives you a chance to start
finding your loved one, right?
Right.
Brad Pfanner is a private I,
who has worked with the show over five years.
Now, Brad has investigated many types of scammers
in his career.
And we wanna talk about how this actually happens.
Now, Brad, tell me what you know about this
and how they go about doing this.
There's an app, is that right?
Could be an app on your smartphone or tablet,
it could be a program on your computer,
but yes, it's a technology that allows
the caller to call any number they wish
and have the caller ID show up on the receiver's phone,
any number they wish.
It will show up with any ringtone
that you have on your phone, any photo.
So your phone thinks it's the phone?
Correct.
Okay, Brad, I have my actual phone,
so what are you gonna do?
I'm going to call your phone right now.
(ringtone chirping)
(audience exclaiming)
What does that say?
Okay, Robin, do you have your phone?
Yes.
It's not even on.
No.
Okay, so I'll answer this now.
And it says that, hello?
Hello.
Okay, there you go.
It says Robin, and Brad, I'm talking to you
on the phone, right?
That's correct, sir.
That's scary.
'Cause you're sitting there with your phone,
and it's not even on.
It's not on, no.
So her phone doesn't even have to be on?
Correct.
So Brad, where do these scammers get these apps,
or you said it's an app or something else.
What's the something else?
It could be a program on your computer.
There's several different apps and programs
that somebody could write the program themselves.
How do they get the number to call?
Just explain how this works.
So it would involve a little bit of research.
They would need to know the number to call,
and to use a number that they're unfamiliar with,
they would have to do a little research
and find a connection between them.
Okay, so that might be social media or something,
or they may have hacked into the person's contact list
or something. Correct.
Which happens a lot.
But they could go to social media and see Samantha,
see you guys, and then they get the number to call
from using the app that looks like her phone.
But how do they get the number?
Various ways.
I mean, people used to have their phone numbers
readily available on Facebook.
Facebook seems to be getting better at hiding that.
But all forms of social media.
People post there information all over the place.
How difficult is it to find
these virtual kidnapping scammers?
Oh, it's nearly impossible.
It's, these numbers are untraceable.