A teenage Chinese student who authorities say was the victim of an international cyber-kidnapping plot was rescued after nearly freezing to death in a tent outside Salt Lake City.
Authorities said 17-year-old Kai Chuan fled her host home on December 28 after cybercriminals believed her family in China was being threatened. Her family told police they paid the $80,000 ransom after Qian sent photos showing she was being held against her will.
Investigators said Sunday they found Zhuang alone and “very cold and scared” in a snowy ravine northeast of the city, where searchers evacuated by helicopter and drone and removed tents. A video showing what happened was released. While he was gone, the temperature dropped to below freezing.
Zhuang’s disappearance made international headlines, but authorities now say someone appears to have tricked her into fleeing by forcing her family to pay a ransom.
Police said, “We believe the victim was isolated in a tent at the direction of the cyber kidnapper.”
Investigators said they were working with the FBI and the Chinese embassy to find the kidnappers.
“The victim had no heat source in the tent, only a heating blanket, sleeping bag, limited food and water, and several phones that were believed to be used to carry out the cyber kidnapping,” Riverdale Police Department said in a December announcement. Statement on the 31st. “The victim simply wanted to talk to his family to make sure they were safe and requested a hot cheeseburger, both of which were fulfilled on the way back to the Riverdale Police Department.”
Police in another city in Utah said they found Zhuang carrying camping equipment on December 20, and took him home to his host family out of concern because it was cold. Police said he did not tell them he was already under the control of cyber kidnappers.
When his family in China contacted the Utah school on Dec. 28, police quickly discovered his camping equipment was missing from his host home and his cell phone was taken to the Brigham Canyon area. I tracked it down. They then began a massive search using helicopters and drones while investigators hiked through the canyon.
“Riverdale Police Sergeant Derek Engstrom climbed the mountainside on foot and discovered the victim’s tent in a wooded area,” Riverdale Police Department said in a statement. “Officer Engstrom contacted the victim inside the tent and found him alive, but very cold and scared. The victim was relieved to see police.”
According to investigators, Zhuang’s case was the result of cybercriminals targeting international students, particularly Chinese students, contacting both students and their families separately, convincing them that their families were being threatened, and threatening them. It is said that it is a type of fraud in which the person is asked to take a photo showing that they are receiving the same. Kidnapped. Police said cybercriminals used these photos to trick families into paying ransoms.
“Cyber kidnappers continue to use fear, tactics, photographs, and audio recordings of their victims to blackmail families, who are not aware that the kidnappers are with their victims and are willing to harm them,” Riverdale police said in a statement. “They make us believe that we are giving.”
This type of cyber kidnapping is a more sophisticated form of virtual kidnapping pioneered in part by Mexican prison inmates who trick wealthy Americans into paying ransoms.