Tech expert reveals how the rise of AI has allowed hackers to create nasty real-life scenarios to target victims online – and what you can do to avoid being extorted

Australia

Virtual kidnapping fraud has been creeping into the US for over two decades, but this bizarre scheme has evolved in recent times and has exploited many individuals across the country.

In a recent case, 17-year-old foreign exchange student Kai Zhuang was reported missing on December 28 after his family in China received threatening messages that he had been kidnapped.

Despite his host family in Utah reporting that he had been seen earlier that day, his family paid an $80,000 ransom to Chinese bank accounts.

He was later found in the Brigham City Canyon after police say he fell victim to it a dirty ‘cyber kidnapping’ scam.

The teenager was told his family at home was in danger, while his parents in China were told he had been kidnapped before being extorted out of $80,000.

Dr. Chris Pierson, the founder and CEO of BlackCloak, a cybersecurity firm for high-profile individuals, told DailyMail.com exclusively that Zhuang’s case is “an interesting escalation in terms of today’s common scams” and that artificial intelligence could make cases like this easier to facilitate .

In a recent case, Kai Zhuang, 17, was plucked from a mountainside in Utah after anonymous scammers convinced him to self-isolate

Once he was alone, kidnappers sent a ransom demand to his parents in China to be paid for his return – he was later located by police

Officials said the foreign exchange student went missing from the home where he was staying in Riverdale and camping along the Wasatch Front

While Pierson specifically represents celebrities and successful executives, he was also the former president of the FBI’s InfraGard Division in Arizona and worked for the Department of Homeland Security on the Privacy Committee and Cybersecurity Subcommittee.

When asked about the Utah case and cyber kidnapping as a whole, Pierson said the criminals behind these suspicious and terrifying schemes typically target foreign populations and aim to extract as much money as possible from their victims.

He revealed that foreign exchange students are the “perfect target group” for this crime, mainly because of the time difference they share with their biological families.

In Zhuang’s case, his parents were back in China at the time of his apparent kidnapping, making it difficult for them to contact them at the time.

Pierson also said language barriers play a role in offenders’ game plan, as victims may not notice disagreements or warning signs, making it easier for them to become “hunted.”

The criminals’ main goal is to collect as much money as possible and they will do this by creating eye-catching, fake stories to scare their targets.

The CEO said cash winnings under $10,000 are most common, but now that the ease of electronic transactions and wire transfers allows criminals to get away with much more.

“Number one, they’re used to transferring large dollar amounts internationally, so this won’t raise any red flags,” Pierson said.

He said if this happened domestically, it would have raised suspicion among U.S. banks and institutions.

‘Second, it will be electronic. Also, people who are able to send their kids to foreign exchange programs, foreign exchange trips, and all the rest of it, maybe people who are more inclined or more able to actually pay,” Pierson said.

He considered Zhuang and his family part of the “at-risk population” for the tactical cyber attack.

When it comes to the crime itself, the kidnapping is orchestrated in a very discreet manner, with the victims told to limit their paper trails, use different phones for communication, and refrain from telling anyone.

When Zhuang was found “cold and scared” in the rural mountains, police said several phones were found in his tent.

Jennifer DeStefano’s 15-year-old daughter Brie (with her above) was safely on a ski vacation with her father, but scammers briefly convinced her mother that they had kidnapped the girl

Speaking at a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jennifer DeStefano described a kidnapping hoax in which scammers used AI to replicate her daughter’s voice

Pierson said victims could also be advised to turn off their current personal devices and instead use others that cannot be traced back to them.

Chief Casey Warren of the Riverdale Police Department told DailyMail.com that although the Utah teen was missing and believed to have been kidnapped, his family and host family were cooperating with police the entire time.

The department also revealed that his family traveled from China to the US after he was found and are now with him. Warren said it is unclear whether the 17-year-old will travel back to China or remain in the U.S. to continue his education.

In January 2023, Arizona mother Jennifer DeStefano received an unknown phone call while waiting for her young daughter at dance rehearsal.

When she answered the call, she heard the voice of her eldest daughter Brianna, 15, screaming in fear as she told her mother she “messed up.”

Friends were able to quickly confirm Brie’s safety within minutes of the hoax call

DeStafano immediately panicked, trying to understand what was being said before she heard a man’s voice.

‘Listen. I have your daughter. If you call the police, if you call anyone else, I’ll give her something full of drugs. I’m going to work with her and then drop her off in Mexico, and you’ll never see her again,” the man on the phone said.

The panicked mother then received a $1 million ransom demand, called the police and called her daughter Brianna.

To her surprise, her child had no idea what her mother was talking about and seemed to be doing just fine.

“The voice sounded just like Brie’s, the inflection, everything,” she said CNN.

The criminals who targeted DeStafano and her family used AI software to make it appear as if her daughter was actually kidnapped.

This is something that Pierson said is expected to make this crime much easier for criminals and scarier for the victims.

“The real deal is AI,” he said. ‘People actually use it. Cybercriminals have even started using it just by performing a normal trick.”

The cybersecurity expert added that voiceprints are ubiquitous on social networking sites such as Twitter and Instagram and can easily pick up people’s voices to use elsewhere.

During his time at his computer security firm, Pierson said he has witnessed the use of artificial intelligence on many of his high-profile clients as scammers simply rip their voices from films and interviews.

Cyber scams are happening all the time and Pierson said the best way to avoid them is to remain as vigilant as possible when you are contacted.

“Once you discover those patterns, it becomes a lot easier to defend against them, and a lot harder to perpetrate,” he said.

On the topic of cyber kidnapping, Pierson admitted that he believes it is “a more difficult scam to spread” because it is difficult to get two parties to cooperate on the demands.

“Cybercriminals are always going to change what they do based on different demands, different roadblocks, different barriers,” Pierson said.