5,000/dayrandom calls, with no idea who would answer or whether they had a missing relative at all
A Tijuana-based virtual kidnapping ring placed up to 5,000 random calls a day from about 30 phone numbers, and still collected at least $500,000 from families who happened to have a relative crossing the border.
The callers had no information about who they were reaching. Four defendants were sentenced in January 2015 after collecting $1,500 to $4,000 ransoms from 124 families via MoneyGram and Western Union.
Source: KPBS · Associated Press, via Yahoo News. Read more: virtual kidnapping scam · case file