BROOMFIELD, Colo. — A Broomfield family is warning others after they nearly lost $3,000 in a virtual kidnapping scam.
Stephen vonDreele received alarming calls from his family early Tuesday morning. After missing a call from his sister, he answered his father’s call, only to be greeted by a voice he didn’t recognize.
"Next thing I know, a voice that I've never recognized before gets on the phone and says, 'Listen to me very carefully in the next five minutes, or I'm gonna kill your dad,'" said vonDreele.
Criminals convinced vonDreele they had his father captive and would kill him unless he paid them $3,000 via PayPal. When vonDreele struggled to quickly send the criminals money, they became even more aggressive and imitated the sounds of someone being locked in the trunk of a car.
"I could hear him saying, 'Put him in the trunk. Put him in the trunk.' And then you could hear the car, like a car trunk, close, as well," vonDreele said.
While the scammers did what they could to keep vonDreele on the phone, his wife called 911.
"[A Broomfield police officer] started talking to my wife and said, 'I'll be there in about five minutes. Hang up the phone. You call his father on your phone as many times as you can, just to see if he's okay and he can pick up,'" vonDreele recalled.
VonDreele's father picked up the phone call and was safe and sound in Kentucky. The Broomfield Police Department determined criminals faked the whole ordeal to extort money.
"That's pulling on somebody's heart strings, like, the most full way you can. You're threatening somebody's family member," vonDreele said.
Broomfield PD told Denver7 that this is a common tactic used by scammers in virtual kidnapping attempts. Scammers are able to find personal details on social media pages and use those to prey on emotions. They will then ask for payment via electronic payment apps or gift cards.
If this does happen to you, police urge victims to stay calm, listen for signs of a scam and hang up the phone — no matter if you think the situation is real or not.
"Never be forced into making a quick decision. If they tell you, 'don't hang up,' hang up. That's a red flag right there," said Rachel Haslett, the public information officer for Broomfield PD. "If they say to you, 'don't you dare hang up this phone call,' hang it up call to your local police department."
VonDreele considers himself lucky. The $3,000 payment was blocked by PayPal and never went through to the scammers.
Broomfield police said it is highly unlikely that money can be returned in cases like these.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said these are the most common signs of similar phone scams:
- Callers go to great lengths to keep you on the phone. They insist that you need to stay on the line.
- The calls do not come from the supposed victim's phone or they come from a similar phone number.
- Callers prevent you from contacting the "kidnapped" victim.
- Callers demand ransom money via electronic payment app or gift cards.
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