“Crime is like fashion. It experiences trends which catch on quickly and which move faster than the police, the government or the state. Secuestros virtuales (fake kidnappings) are the ‘hottest new craze’ on the Argentine crime scene.”
Ex-Chief Inspector of the Buenos Aires Police, Luis Vicat, describes the rapid rate at which this criminal phenomenon is sweeping the city. Vicat is now a lawyer and analyst of the science of security. After 17 years of studying the complexities of crime in Buenos Aires, he offers a pessimistic insight into the seemingly unresolvable prevalence of fake kidnappings.
The trend setters
Vicat explains: “This mode of crime hit Argentina about eight years ago.” Fake kidnappings were initially very isolated incidents: prisoners called people from jail, pretending to have sequestered a loved one. As a ransom, they demanded the codes of hundreds of pesos worth of pre-pay mobile phone cards, taking advantage of their victims’ emotional vulnerability and subsequent likelihood to comply.
The problem escalated during the last three years. In 2008, between 20 and 40 cases were reported daily in Buenos Aires. Furthermore, as the incidents have become more common, so has their severity. Prisoners are no longer the only ones calling. “The integral instrument in these crimes is such a basic and necessary tool, yet when misused, things can become incredibly dangerous.”
Vicat is referring to telephones, with which the perpetrators call places of residence, either planned or randomly chosen. The success of these crimes relies on the exchange of key personal details. As the voice at the end of the line identifies the absence of a member of the household, the victim, in a state of shock, is more likely to answer “clarification questions”. They accidentally offer information that the criminals use to make the scenario as believable as possible. The culprits demand a ransom in the form of mobile phone credit, or a package of money or valuables, deposited at a defined location.
The fashion victims
Susana was a victim of a secuestro virtual. Her son, Gustavo, gave his contact details to a promoter claiming to offer a shopping discount card, outside a cinema. “They perfectly described his appearance, clothing and the friend he was with,” Susana recalls. “I couldn’t get in touch with him – of course, he switched off his phone in the cinema.”
She was told to take $1000 to a bar within the following half hour. On arrival, a man forced entrance into her car, ordering her to drive to a nearby villa, where she was robbed of the money, her mobile phone and the car. “It was a horrendous end to a traumatic ordeal.”
However, fake kidnappers adopt various approaches to target their victims and execute their crime:
Marcelo was driving in centre when he received a call from a man claiming to have kidnapped his wife. He warned that if he did not comply with their demands, he would kill her. The kidnappers told him they were following and watching him in a white van. Looking behind him, Marcelo could see a number of white vans in the lanes. Nonetheless, he followed his instructions, stopping at a kiosk to purchase $500 of mobile phone credit, before reading the cards’ codes down the phone. He returned home to find his wife unharmed and unaware of her earlier ‘kidnap’.
Alejandra lives in an apartment near Constitución with six other international students. One afternoon, a man called their landline, identifying that one member of the household was absent. Alejandra recalls: “It was true, Aurelie was the only person who was not there, although we thought she was at work.” When she confirmed the name of the missing housemate, the man told Alejandra he was with Aurelie, had a gun to her head and would pull the trigger unless she deposited money in a bin nearby. “We were petrified. I called the police, who told us to do nothing. They said this was common, and unless the guy called back, it was probably a secuestro virtual.” Within an hour, Aurelie returned home from work, oblivious. However Alejandra remains shaken: “This man knew the apartment’s location. Of course, he could have just trawled through a phonebook; but he could also have watched and researched for some time, working out that one of us was out each Wednesday afternoon. No one was hurt and no money changed hands, but it’s still scary.”
In October, the Buenos Aires minister of education, Mariano Narodowski, was a victim of a fake kidnapping when someone called his home, alleging to have sequestered his wife. Narodowski, who was opening a cinema in Constitución, rushed to his house in the Boedo neighbourhood, where he found his family together and safe. As soon as the police suspected the claims were not genuine, they had located and assembled the family members, to ensure that the incident was, in fact, a secuestro virtual.
New look, deep roots
“When someone tells you they have kidnapped your child, you don’t think rationally,” Vicat points out. “You are defenceless to being tricked into believing or doing anything.” However, there is another factor that explains why secuestros virtuales have become “one of the most common small crimes in Buenos Aires”.
After the staggering number of kidnappings that pervade Argentina’s recent history, it is unsurprising that such calls have a profound effect. With reference to the ‘disappearances’ of the 1976-83 Dirty War, Vicat asserts: “We have a complicated past. There are certain things ingrained in our collective memory which will influence the way we react in these situations.”
In vogue and out of control
The problem deepens. “Secuestros virtuales are a fad because criminals take advantage not only of our emotional weakness, but also of the weakness of the state of security,” he claims. He describes the “reactive concept of security” held by the Buenos Aires police force, criticising the authorities’ inability to deal with such crime until after it has happened.
Vicat believes there are not enough preventative measures in place and the public are not well enough informed of crimes which may affect them. He also laments that although there are more armed patrol officers on the streets of the capital, their training is neither well-structured nor sufficiently intensive or flexible. “Criminals see opportunity and they seize it.”
Cramping their style
However, the police maintain that they “are doing all they can to make Buenos Aires a safer place.” In terms of fake kidnappings, a system has been installed which notifies the reciever that an incoming call is from a prison. The dangers of social networking websites are publicised in schools, as the police warn young people that indiscriminate availability of their personal details can lead to the smooth execution of a secuestro virtual.
Luis Vicat has published a guide to avoiding such crimes, which he has made easily accessible on the internet. He highlights the importance of withholding information in unfamiliar situations, identifying unknown callers, and being wary of reverse-charge call requests. Vicat champions the principles of precaution, discretion and prevention, opining that if we heighten our awareness of certain crimes, we minimise our susceptibility to them. Perhaps in this way, we will be able to push them out of fashion.