Phone scam frightens Mass. mom, prompts warning

LYNNFIELD, Mass. – Law enforcement officials are warning about a kidnapping phone scam that has targeted parents throughout Masschusetts, and which Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley says has cost people tens of thousands of dollars, CBS Boston reported.

According to the station, one recent case involved a mother in Lynnfield, about 15 miles north of Boston, who was at work a week ago Monday when she received a phone call saying her son had been in a car accident and was badly hurt. Then came the threat.

“I’m thinking he’s already injured. They’ve got a pistol to his head and I have to do what they say,” the woman, named Laura, told CBS Boston. “When someone threatens your child it’s hard to hang up the phone.”

CBS Boston that although Laura didn’t know it, at the same time the scam artists were on the phone with her 14 year old son, spinning a similar scary story. Both felt terrorized.

Laura was panicked and prepared to wire the money. But before she left her office, she put the phone on speaker and her co-workers heard the threats.

They contacted her family and reached out to police. By the time she arrived at the Western Union and was filling out the forms to send money, police arrived and told her all three of her sons were accounted for, according to the station.

“Just complete relief. All I cared about was that my kids were OK,” she said.

But her ordeal wasn't over. When she got home, the scammers texted her this message: “I’m going to find all your family and kill them all, I swear.”

Laura knows at some point she gave the criminals her address. Her family is on edge.

She told CBS Boston the crooks were very convincing, manipulative and knowing what buttons to push. Police say there are reports like Laura’s coming in almost daily from across Massachusetts.