FBI alert: Mexican virtual kidnapping schemes extorting Americans

Although millions of Americans safely visit Mexico each year for business and pleasure, they can be targets for virtual kidnappers. “People with family and connections in Mexico and communities on both sides of the border have legitimate fears of the gangs and drug cartels and how violent they are,” said a member of our Crisis Negotiation Unit who has worked many hostage situations. “That fear plays into the hands of the virtual kidnappers,” he said. “They use it to their advantage.”