Hillsborough Woman Falls Victim To Kidnapping Phone Scam

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ - Last week we warned you that scammers were targeting phone numbers in the area around South Plainfield, telling those who picked up that their loved one had been kidnapped and demanding ransom. On Friday, a Hillsborough woman contacted Patch to report that she almost fell victim to the same scam. She now wants to tell her story to warn others.

The 40-year-old woman, who did not want to give her name — "because I'm pretty embarrassed!" — got a text message around noon on Friday from a 347 number. The text read "A car accident happened to someone you know. Please call back at this number."

"I didn't call back since I thought it was a scam and instead I texted, 'Who was in the accident?,'" she recalled. "As soon as I sent the text they called me. A man with a Spanish accent said, 'Do you have a brother or sister?' And I said yes, I have both. They said there was an accident with my brother. But I told them it couldn't be him because he is abroad right now. They said 'It must be your sister.'"

South Plainfield police had previously warned that a Hispanic-sounding man was making the calls and think the caller is based in Puerto Rico.

"At that point I did think it was credible because maybe my sister and her husband got into a car accident and this caller was confused," she said. "The man told me, 'Your sister backed out of a gas station and hit my brother's car and broke my nephew's leg. It was an accident and she said she was going to call 911. But my brother is wanted by the police, so he immediately pulled out a gun on my sister and told her not to call the police.'"

"At this point I am thinking, 'Oh, this is really crazy,' so I said 'What's my sister's name?' I heard him call across the street, 'What's the lady's name?' And then someone shouts back (name withheld), which is my sister's name," she said. "I demanded to talk to my sister. And he had a woman in the background crying and calling my name. It sounded like it could have been my sister."

By this point, the man said his brother had brought the woman back to his apartment and that he was beating her up. "I could hear this woman screaming in the background and crying, saying, 'Please, help me!' I could hear this desperation in her voice. At that point, I said I'll pay, please don't hurt her!"

But when the woman asked how much, the man launched into a very long-winded story and eventually gave her a sum, $500.

"At that point, I hung up. It was such a long-winded explanation it made me suspicious. I called my sister and her husband, and they didn't pick up," she said. "So then I called 911 and asked them to send someone to their home (in Hopewell Township) to check on them."

A Hopewell Township police officer did eventually manage to locate her sister at her job that day, and it was confirmed that the call had all been a scam attempt.

"I was very much embarrassed," she said. "I am sure everyone reading this article will think I'm so stupid, how could I let this happen. But when you're in the thick of it, it can seem very credible. My sister really could have been in an accident and she would have called me first. And then what really convinced me was the moment when the guy across the street yelled back my sister's name. That was what made me think this is really legitimate."

The woman admitted she could have let her sister's name slip earlier in the conversation, however. "The man was talking so fast," she said.

Her husband told her he got the same text message Friday from the same 347 number: 347-326-4930. He Googled the number and found this Patch article from South Plainfield police, warning residents to ignore all strange calls from 347-326-4930, 973-901-8427 and 908-327-3445. In all the incidents, a Hispanic man tells people their loved ones have been kidnapped and demands ransom. He seems to know personal details about the victim's life, usually pulled from Facebook and other social media, police said. This is the third incident of its type that we know of.

"My husband thinks they are just sending mass text messages and seeing who responds," the woman said. "I want other people to know, so they're alert to this happening. We all hear of these scams and think it only happens to old ladies. But it doesn't."

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