RIVERDALE, Utah (KUTV) — Investigators confirmed that cyber-kidnappers had been targeting a 17-year-old foreign exchange student in Riverdale for a lot longer than previously known.
The teen disappeared from his host family’s home on the Dec. 28, but police said the alleged kidnappers had been blackmailing the boy for money for about a month before he went missing.
Riverdale Police Chief Casey Warren said they forced the teen to send them thousands of dollars, or they said they would harm his family back in China.
“Basically, [the kidnappers said], ‘If you don’t do exactly what we say, then your parents will be in danger.’ He’s talking to them, not in person, but over the phone because they’re from China,” Warren said. “So, he’s believing he’s doing these things in the U.S. to protect his family in China.”
When the boy’s parents started asking about this missing money, Warren said the kidnappers changed their tactics.
Previous reporting from 2News
“Once that happened, obviously he’s not able to send the money to the kidnappers, that’s when they ‘upped the ante,’ if you will, and said, ‘OK, now you’re going to do this so we can get more money from your parents,” Warren said. “They told him to leave and isolate himself and they began targeting the parents, directly.”
In total, police believe the kidnappers took roughly $80,000 from the victim’s family.
Warren said they were able to track the teen down to an area near Brigham City by triangulating his old cell phone pings. Warren also said the boy wasn’t prepared for camping in the cold, so they feel lucky they found him before he froze to death.
“Inside that tent, very little supplies,” Warren said. “He had a sleeping bag, one of those tin foil heat blankets and a couple cell phones that we believe were used to carry out and monitor this cyber-kidnapping.”
When the boy was rescued, Warren said he was immediately relieved.
“One of the first things he wanted to do was to contact his family in China and make sure they were OK,” he said.
Security experts said cyber-criminals often get the information they need to extort their victims from social media posts. Granite School District Spokesman Ben Horsely said they teach kids not to post anything that criminals could use.
“[Don’t post] any private information, literally anything beyond your first name. Have an account that’s private. Do not talk to strangers, at all,” Horsley said.
The boy has been reunited with his family and they’re returning to China. Warren said since the kidnappers are based in China, it’s up to investigators in that country to find the suspects and bring them to justice.
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