Police in Utah mentioned a Chinese trade scholar was the sufferer of a cyberkidnapping rip-off the place the teenage boy was threatened into simulating his personal abduction so his household may very well be extorted for hundreds of {dollars}.
Riverdale police mentioned they discovered Kai Zhuang, 17, tenting alone within the Utah wilderness Sunday after he was reported lacking Thursday.
Authorities mentioned they discovered the boy with minimal provides however a number of telephones in his possession so the distant kidnappers might monitor him whereas he was hiding out.
Police mentioned the pictures Kai took of himself to appease his “captors” triggered his household to pay the abductors $80,000.
Authorities mentioned they have been capable of finding Kai’s tent in a wooded space close to Brigham City after reviewing his telephone and financial institution information.
“We believed the victim was isolating himself at the direction of cyberkidnappers in a tent,” Riverdale police mentioned in a information launch. “Due to the cold weather in Utah at this time of year, we became additionally concerned for the victim’s safety in that he may freeze to death overnight.”
Responding officers mentioned they discovered the boy “alive but very cold and scared.” He requested to name his household in China and a “warm cheeseburger” as soon as he was picked up by regulation enforcement.
Police mentioned Kai was being manipulated by the abductors as early as Dec. 20 — over per week earlier than his host household final noticed him.
Riverdale police mentioned cyberkidnapping scams prey on international trade college students, notably Chinese.
