Late on the night of September 8, a distraught father named Mr. Xie rushed into the Datian police station in Dongfang, Hainan. He told officers his son had been kidnapped into an overseas scam compound. The captors were demanding a 20,000 yuan ransom, warning that things would turn ugly if the money wasn't paid. Police calmed the father down and launched an immediate investigation. On September 16, they found the son—safe and sound—inside an apartment in Haikou City.
It didn't take long for the truth to come out. There was no overseas compound and no kidnapping. The whole thing was a staged drama by the son. Broke and desperate for cash, he had come across short videos online showing scam parks extorting families back in China. Seeing a quick way to make money, he decided to copy the scheme. He faked photos of himself looking beaten up and sent them to his father over WeChat along with the ransom demand. After being picked up by police, he confessed to everything and was placed under administrative detention.
Scam compounds are constantly in the news these days. You can hardly sit at a roadside tea stall in Phnom Penh without hearing people talk about them over the noise of motorbikes and traffic. But taking genuine human tragedy and turning it into a trick to extort your own family is a dark turn. Police are warning the public that if you ever receive a message claiming a loved one has been kidnapped or is being held for ransom, do not rush to transfer any money. The very first thing you should do is contact the police to verify the situation.
