“So, a mother just came in, she received a phone call from someone who has her daughter … like a kidnapper on the phone saying he wants a million dollars,” the other mom says. In audio of the 911 call provided to CNN by the Scottsdale Police Department, a mom at the dance studio tries to explain to the dispatcher what’s happening. Overall, Americans lost $2.6 billion last year in imposter scams, according to data from the Federal Trade Commission. In the United States, families lose an average of $11,000 in each fake-kidnapping scam, said Siobhan Johnson, a special agent and FBI spokesperson in Chicago. DeStefano had just pulled up outside the dance studio in Scottsdale, near Phoenix.ĭeStefano now believes she was a victim of a virtual kidnapping scam that targets people around the country, frightening them with altered audio of loved one’s voices and demanding money. The call came in on January 20 around 4:55 p.m. “You can hear your child cry across the building, and you know it’s yours.”Īrtificial intelligence has made kidnapping scams more believable “A mother knows her child,” she said later. A puzzled Brianna called to tell her mother that she didn’t know what the fuss was about and that everything was fine.īut DeStefano, who lives in Arizona, will never forget those four minutes of terror and confusion – and the eerie sound of that familiar voice. She felt like she was suddenly drowning.Īfter a chaotic, rapid-fire series of events that included a $1 million ransom demand, a 911 call and a frantic effort to reach Brianna, the “kidnapping” was exposed as a scam. Then she ran into the dance studio, shaking and screaming for help. I’m gonna have my way with her then drop her off in Mexico, and you’re never going to see her again.”ĭeStefano froze. You call the police, you call anybody, I’m gonna pop her something so full of drugs.

So I started to panic.”Īs the cries for help continued in the background, a deep male voice started firing off commands: “Listen here. “Then, all of a sudden, I heard a man say, ‘Lay down, put your head back.’ I’m thinking she’s being gurnied off the mountain, which is common in skiing.

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

Mom & me & mom