"Some of these are totally fake, and don't involve any abducted people. However, the FBI's Friday alert also warns about posting real missing person info online, indicating that scammers may also be scraping these images and contacting the missing person's family with fake information. It's easy enough to find photos and videos of people - and connect potential victims to family and friends - via social media, and then use AI tools to doctor this footage, or create entirely new images or videos."
"The moves are similar to the age-old grandparent scams, in which fraudsters call seniors and impersonate their children or grandchildren, purporting to be in great physical danger if the grandparent doesn't send needed money ASAP. The FBI classifies this type of fraud as " emergency scams," [PDF] and says it received 357 complaints about them last year, costing victims $2.7 million."
"This newer version, however, adds a 2025 twist: In addition to sending a text, the criminals typically send what appears to be a real image or video of the "kidnapped" person to show proof of life. Plus, to increase the pressure on the victims to pay, the scammers often "express significant claims of violence towards the loved one if the ransom is not paid immediately," the federal cops said."
Criminals are altering social media and public images to create fake proof-of-life photos and videos used in virtual kidnapping extortion. Scammers contact victims by text and claim to have kidnapped a loved one, sometimes staging entirely fabricated abductions. Scammers also scrape real missing-person postings and contact families with falsified updates. Scammers typically send what appears to be authentic images or video as proof of life and escalate pressure with threats of violence to demand immediate payment. AI tools are commonly used to doctor existing media or generate new footage. Proof-of-life images often reveal inaccuracies when compared with verified photos.
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