I just experienced the same horrid experience today. This psycho called and first told me my wife was in an car accident and that she hurt a cousin of theirs and if I didn't pay them money they were going to kill her for hurting their cousin. As far fetched as the story may sound, he knew my wife had blonde hair and he knew I was a contractor so it seemed believable at that moment. As my adrenaline was pumping all I cared about was knowing that my wife was ok. I had my friend call my wife to confirm she was ok, then I saw red and wanted to hurt this jerk trying to pull this terrible scam on me. I also called the Orlando police to report these people and see if they could try to at least "ping" the number and try to find these awful people and also got the same feeling as if I was wasting his time. It was really frustrating thinking for even a second that this could be true and have someone threaten me and my wife and then have nothing done about it. Sure was a major letdown OPD! My advice is to pass this horrible scam onto everyone you know so that if anyone else gets the misfortune of this call they know not to take it as seriously as I did.
It happened to me yesterday. Called non emergency police for Orlando to report extortion, they gave me the run around and refused to take a statement. Pretty sad all the way around. It was a horrible experience to think someone was going to harm your child, then the police department don't want to hear about it! I found a few articles on line about this scam. Maybe one day the Orlando police will recognize it is happening, and I was not trying to waste their time today.
I just experienced the same horrid experience today. This psycho called and first told me my wife was in an car accident and that she hurt a cousin of theirs and if I didn't pay them money they were going to kill her for hurting their cousin. As far fetched as the story may sound, he knew my wife had blonde hair and he knew I was a contractor so it seemed believable at that moment. As my adrenaline was pumping all I cared about was knowing that my wife was ok. I had my friend call my wife to confirm she was ok, then I saw red and wanted to hurt this jerk trying to pull this terrible scam on me. I also called the Orlando police to report these people and see if they could try to at least "ping" the number and try to find these awful people and also got the same feeling as if I was wasting his time. It was really frustrating thinking for even a second that this could be true and have someone threaten me and my wife and then have nothing done about it. Sure was a major letdown OPD! My advice is to pass this horrible scam onto everyone you know so that if anyone else gets the misfortune of this call they know not to take it as seriously as I did.