I was all set to tell you to stop wasting your time, but I really enjoyed reading that exchange.
mmm
We got a call this afternoon, and the message just said it was about our “problem”. The only problem was that the phone rang while we were indulging in some afternoon delight.
He has gone a bit quiet (I can’t really understand why… I’m emailing him several times a day 
), so I might try that!
As long as you don’t give them any information (address, phone number) where they can track you down, there’s no real problem with “just talking.”
Be warned; in addition to the “usual” way these things work (“There’s a slight problem; we need another $500 to bribe this guard we didn’t know about before…”), there’s a variation on this; “You don’t have to send any money now; in fact, here is a plane ticket to see our operation so you can see for yourself that it is legitimate!”; the plane ticket is real, but so are the guns pointed at you when the scammers kidnap you and demand you contact somebody for ransom money…and never mind that, once they get the money, they can kill you anyway and they’re still pretty much untraceable.
Here’s a variation based on a scam against people selling things; they do send you some of the money…but it’s a Money Order with a request that they need you to send some of the money back. Needless to say, it’s fake, and when the bank discovers it, they will demand that you pay back all of the money.
Cite that this has ever happened? Not that anyone has ever been kidnapped for ransom, of course they have; but color me skeptical that any kidnapping operation is buying plane tickets and sending them out to prospective kidnappees.
Not for you or me, but if it is a wealthy person, it might work.
A wealthy person would fly somewhere because somebody they have never heard of sends them a plane ticket?
You just need one dumb, wealthy person.
Ok, if you don’t find this idea ridiculous, let’s get back to asking for a cite that scammers have ever bought plane tickets and sent them to people on the chance that they might use the ticket to travel to place where it’s convenient to kidnap them.
The closest scenario I can imagine is a long con where someone poses as a hot girl online and tempts a foolish man to travel to visit her. But the scammer is still not going to buy the plane ticket.
-nm
I’m working on it, baby! You’re hot! …Err, Dude, yeah.
I’ve heard of scambaiters persuading scammers to part with small amounts of money, but in all the kidnapping (or potential kidnapping) cases I’ve read about, the scam is already well underway at the point where flights are being discussed and the mark is most often already nuts-deep in debt from ‘fees’ he/she has already sent to the scammer - I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a case where the scammer bought the tickets - it’s easier for them to just tell the mark to beg, borrow or steal some more funds for the flight.
Maybe it’s different for scams where kidnapping is the primary initial goal
The kidnappee doesn’t have to have money, the relatives do.
OK
From article:
“After Paul’s ear was sent, his grandfather negotiated a deal to get him back for about $2.9 million (equivalent to $16 million in 2017[10]). He paid $2.2 million—the maximum amount that was tax deductible—and lent the remainder to his son, who was responsible for repaying the sum at 4% interest.[15] Paul was found alive on December 15, 1973, in a petrol station of Lauria in the province of Potenza shortly after the ransom was paid.[16] At his mother’s suggestion, he called his grandfather to thank him for paying the ransom, but J. Paul Getty refused to come to the phone.[15]”
Wow.
How to become rich and stay that way.
Pretty sure I just got one of these on my work number, incoming call spoofed a World Wildlife Fund number.
Or the person has kidnap insurance.