A Chinese foreign exchange student in Utah was found alone, “very cold and scared” in a tent in the mountains in frigid temperatures, after his parents abroad were extorted and threatened with his safety in a “cyber kidnapping,” officials say.
The parents of Kai Zhang, 17, was sent a photograph that allegedly showed him abducted and received “continuous threats” from kidnappers, and they sent $80,000 to bank accounts in China as a ransom, the Riverdale Police Department in Utah said in a news release Sunday.
The parents notified Kai’s high school, which then contacted Riverdale police on Dec. 28.
Police spoke with Kai’s host family in Riverdale, and they were unaware that he was missing. They said he was home the night prior and had heard him in the early morning hours of Dec. 28, and there was no evidence suggesting he was forcibly taken from the home.
Police, working with the FBI, the U.S. embassy in China and Chinese officials, learned of the criminal trend called cyber kidnapping — when foreign exchange students, in particular those from China, are threatened and a ransom is demanded, Riverdale police said.
The victims are ordered to isolate themselves and are monitored via FaceTime or Skype, forced to take photos of themselves that make it appear that they are being held captive and the photos are sent to their frightened parents. Though the kidnapping is conducted apparently remotely, victims often comply out of fear that their families will be harmed, and parents are extorted for fear that the kidnappers are actually with the victim and could harm them.
Police looked into Kai’s whereabouts over the last month and found that he had been contacted by police in Provo, Utah, on Dec. 20. He was found trying to go camping, carrying camping gear. Provo police were “concerned for his safety” and returned him to Riverdale.
Riverdale police said they believed Kai was already being “manipulated and controlled by cyber kidnappers” on Dec….
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