The Brazilian military police center of operations in São Paulo received 3,150 reports of fake kidnapping attempts in the first 45 days of 2007. According to the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo, this is only a fraction of the total number of cases that actually occur, the majority of which are never reported.
Gaining Credibility
Over 50 percent of kidnappings throughout the world occur in Latin America. Kidnapping by rebel groups and organized criminal organizations such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), for political and/or profit motives is widespread and not limited to Colombia, Haiti or Mexico, three countries infamous for their kidnapping rates. Such kidnappings normally are of local, wealthy individuals, or expatriates employed by multi-national corporations that are targeted and held for prolonged periods of time for significant ransoms. Kidnappers target specific persons of importance or affluence in order to bring the largest sum of money for their safe return.
In mid-2006 the BBC reported that in São Paulo one person is kidnapped every two days (source). Additionally, the style of abduction is constantly changing, making it extremely difficult for police looking for some type of kidnapping pattern. The recent shift in Brazil to “flash” or “express” kidnappings also known as “quicknappings”.
• Kidnappers are adapting their modus operandi from targeted kidnapping of specific wealthy individuals to ad hoc “quicknappings”, enlarging the socio-economic classes targeted by kidnapping gangs.
During “quicknappings” individuals are taken for a short period of time and either forced to empty their ATM accounts before being released or held for manageable ransoms that can be acquired in a reasonable amount of time. This change benefits kidnappers in two ways.
• First it allows for a quick transaction and escape.
• Second, the characteristic’s of victims, such as their income levels has changed completely because the ransom demanded is significantly lower. The victim no longer needs to be extremely affluent. Consequently, kidnappers are increasingly targeting tourists and other foreign nationals in “quicknappings” due to their on-hand cash and access to checking and savings accounts through ATMs.
Modus Operandi
The growing number of “quicknappings” in Brazil is giving credibility to fake kidnapping threats sometimes referred to as “virtual” kidnappings. The ability of scammers to emulate “quicknappings” is directly related to the characteristics of the “quicknappings” themselves. Because of the frequency of “quicknappings,” the type of person that is targeted, and the low ransom, the scam artists are able to swindle Brazilian citizens into paying a ransom often without victims contacting authorities.
Initially, the scam started as an unsophisticated operation, with a large number of fake kidnappings being orchestrated from Brazil’s prisons via prison cell telephones. Victims were targeted at random. If the caller’s scam failed the faux kidnappers simply moved onto the next number in the telephone directory. The scammers rarely know information about their potential victims, and instead draw quick conclusions based on the person who answers the phone. For Example, if an older person answered the caller would begin with, “we have your daughter,” simply to startle the person they spoke to.
Other cases are more sophisticated. Perpetrators have been known to obtain information about the person they are calling including name, occupation, and relatives by observing the daily-routines of their intended victims. This allows for a more realistic threat and generally an outcome that favors the scammer. A large percentage of fake kidnapping victims end up losing small sums of money.
In addition to fake kidnapping rings, Brazilian scam artists have also demanded money from random victims to prevent attacks on homes or persons: a scenario that has impacted foreign nationals who reside in Brazil.
A Look Forward
The continued surge in “quicknappings” and the subsequent fear these attacks generate among all socio-economic classes of the Brazilian population will perpetuate the growth of fake kidnapping rings as criminals identify their potential economic reward.
