That poor kid. This is a sick world we live with sick people.

That poor kid. I'm glad he's ok now. Some people are so sick to do crap like this.

Isolation is the biggest form of control

Where has our decency gone as a society

@SmirkInvestigator

5 ай бұрын

Stop it. It’s always been like this. And is very uncommon but any amount is already too much.

@zbaschtian

5 ай бұрын

@@SmirkInvestigator this is my biggest complaint for covering this type of story in this way: they're overblowing the danger people are actually in and spreading a lot of unfounded fear. People will stop sending and hosting exchange students because of this instead of asking how to protect them better next time. In the end you do nothing to fix it, but it's ok because the media outlet got its impression quota covered.

This is sad and scary. I hope that person get caught and put in prison forever.

Poor guy. I feel so sorry for him. And I’m embarrassed by half of you people laughing at this… What a horrible world we live in.

Do people honestly think this exact scam can't be replicated overseas with American Abroad tourist or people on vacation?? We're all vulnerable to scams, always

I love the real-estate calls I get multiple times a day. I try to waste as much of their time I can so they dont ripoff someone else.

This sounds like rich kids, faking being kidnapped, for spending $… maybe they’re looking for a way to stay, but…

@guillaumelagueyte1019

5 ай бұрын

Nope, not with the conditions he was staying in. If he had faked it, he would have had a modicum of comfort

@DairyAir

5 ай бұрын

@@guillaumelagueyte1019 the multiple phones… I’ve gone camping, in a snow storm, without heat… I wouldn’t want to live like that, but a few days in a sleeping bag, isn’t that bad… I’m not even saying he is necessarily doing a bad thing. He could be trying to get funds, to escape an abusive parent…

The kidnappers must be chinese, otherwise threatening the student's family in China would not be credible to him

Horrifying. Poor kid, and poor family.

Whenever anyone asks you over the phone for any personal information, such as your Social Security number, bank account number, PIN, etc.. just ask them to tell you what they have and you'll verify it and watch how fast they hang up.

@edp3202

5 ай бұрын

Brilliant strategy.

They busted a similar scam here in Australia a few years ago, but here they called it "virtual kidnapping". It was a very elaborate setup run through a dedicated call centre using illegal chinese immigrants..

He kidnapped his self. 🤦

I was myself a foreign exchange student in the US back in 2006/2007 (I'm from Switzerland). I knew lots of other exchange students and based on this, my guess is that Chinese exchange students tend to be particularly easy victims. There are certain nationalities among the exchange student community in the US which tend to isolate themselves far more than others. This is partially due to linguistic challenges (learning English as a native speaker of Korean or Chinese is FAR harder than as a native speaker of German or French) but it's also due to socio-economic reasons. Most European exchange students who spend time living in the US come from middle- or upper-middle class backgrounds. Their parents are usually teachers, clerks, architects etc.. This means they are roughly on the same level as their American host family, which makes the process of integrating into everyday American life much easier. By contrast, many (though not all) Korean and Chinese exchange students come from really wealthy backgrounds. I knew two Koreans during my time in the US and they constantly went on shopping sprees together, spending up to USD $10,000 on a single afternoon. With most of those rich kids, it felt as though they didn't even want to be in the US. Their parents had basically forced them into this "experience" because they wanted them to become good at English and ideally make some connections. But here's the thing about learning a foreign language: it only works if you really want it to. You must be personally invested. For example I studied English every single day. I set myself goals to learn a certain number of new words per day. Whenever I learned a new word, I tried to use it in my everyday conversations. I told the people around me to correct my grammar and pronunciation. During the first 6 months of my exchange year, I completely cut off contact with my family and friends back home. I refused to pick up any calls or read any emails because I didn't want to speak a single word of Swiss. I was extremely hard on myself but the payoff was huge. My English skills improved dramatically during that one year. Other exchange students weren't really interested in learning the language. After living in the US for an entire year, those two Korean guys knew barely enough English to order a coke at a diner. They spent 98% of their time talking in Korean. I saw Chinese exchange students do the same thing. Obviously, this makes you very vulnerable. After a couple of months, I felt fully intengrated into American society, which is basically the point of a highschool exchange year. I knew how things worked, I understood the culture/mentality and I would've known how to ask for help. The two Korean guys remained tourists and outsiders for their entire stay. I don't think they learned anything about America and this makes you a very easy victim for criminals.

@ArtistFormallyKnownasMC

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing. So many of the comments coming from the American/English speaking fan base (probably only speak English), as well as an odd percentage who seem to hate watch. Americans tend to be big time ethnocentric and immediately jump to “what an idiot.” When I saw the story break, I was thinking along the lines of what you shared. It’s easy to get scammed when there’s a language barrier, and a lack of understanding of culture and cyber security. Locally we had a mariachi band coming from Mexico, I live in Florida, and a local bilingual newspaper/social media group I follow was giving away tickets to five families, which was amazing! I purposefully only left a comment, so I was not following the rules of the contest. There were a lot of deserving families that should win instead of me. but it came to light that a fake Facebook page with the same name was reaching out to people from the comment section telling them they had won. And then the users were confused because this fake page was also asking about credit card information. My mother was a little disrespectful with that same attitude, how could anyone fall for that anymore… we know so much about technology and phishing has been around for so long now. And I reminded her that simply language could be the reason. People don’t get it. And they can’t even fathom how they would cope if dropped into other countries. Americans are spoiled that so much of the world also speaks English and people like you work so hard to learn it. But it doesn’t go both ways! Anyways, kudos to you for doing your best. If you had not said anything, based on your writing, I would have thought you to be a native English speaking. Your grammar is impecable.

@zbaschtian

5 ай бұрын

​@@ArtistFormallyKnownasMC former Latino exchange student here. My experience is at the college level and I doubt language proficiency testing is enforced to the same degree, but it does seem blatantly irresponsible on to have international students with a language barrier, and minors at that, unassisted to the point they can be preyed upon by scammers. If so, there's a lot of responsibility to be put here on the student, hosts, family, educational institution and foreign exchange program. They're all idiots. This type of scam is not exclusive to the US; I'm pretty sure if you ask around you'll hear similar stories from every country (I know I have on at least four). None of them collected from the victims, and in all cases it was due to people actually keeping tabs on their families and friends. I will agree that this case does imply a lot of isolation, including from people that should be liable for it, especially the hosts/exchange program.

@waynefrench756

5 ай бұрын

@@zbaschtian sounds like you believe everyone but the CROOKS should be accountable !!!!!

@zbaschtian

5 ай бұрын

@@waynefrench756 no, I'm just being realistic. If these scams work the same way that most other internet scams, your EngageShoutCaps-Crooks-DisengageShoutCaps are operating in a jurisdiction where you can't touch them (read: another country with a shitty justice system). Unless you wanna nuke half the world (think of all the exchange students that'd die from the splash damage!), there's no effective way of fighting these short of not falling for it. Meaning less paranoia and more brain activity, for starters, moving into effective education and action by the aforementioned parties and ending in liability to those who fail to do their job in protecting the victims. Again, this is not an actual kidnapping. No one is putting a gun to the victim's head or sending their family random limbs as proof of life. These are opportunistic kids with mild social engineering knowledge following a script. Stop overreacting.

Our world is so sad

It’s called extortion. The people perpetrating this should be thrown in jail.

@waynefrench756

5 ай бұрын

@sin since they used no gun they will not get enough time !! if ever arrested !!!!!

@imnotmike

5 ай бұрын

@@waynefrench756 cybercrimes of any sort are a felony with a 10 year prison sentence, and that's on top of kidnapping and extortion charges. If they ever find them, they will get a hefty prison sentence. But they'll likely never find them.

What's the problem of communicating everything with the family and calling the police? Some people are so weird

@Dirty10

5 ай бұрын

I think the word you're looking for is dumb

Geez, I see some pretty good comments and some hateful comments and I will follow Cenk and Anna's advice and check out facts in multiple sources...not just one source to confirm facts. I appreciated that you guys encourage this.

@jaynecobb6711

5 ай бұрын

Just be sure that those sources are legitimate and not Crack pot right wing 'news sources' like faux propaganda network and Newsmax ect. Right wing media lies to you with propaganda and leaving out pertinent FACTS they don't want their low information viewers to know. For example, a $$287 MILLION DOLLAR$$$ settlement for faux propaganda network. Because faux propaganda lied to their low information viewers. So be skeptical with a grain of salt with what you find.

How dumb you have to be to be "Cyber-kidnapped"?

This is the stupidest thing I've heard today.

"Didnt have a heat source only a heat blanket..."

Remember a few years ago, there was a series of incidents where someone would call a McDonalds and force a worker to strip? You wonder how it's possible for people to fall for it, but they did. It's scary what a very pursuasive person can get people to do.

@sandpiperr

5 ай бұрын

The way you stated that was misleading. What happened in the McDonald's incident was he talked a manager into forcing an employee to strip.

Sounds like the kids are scamming their parents out of money...

@improvisedsurvival5967

5 ай бұрын

This what I think he was found with 2 phones. One is his and one for playing the kidnapper. Not buying this kid is a victim. This is extortion. Kid knows his parents have a lot of $. He got caught and just plays the victim when he knows full well what he’s doing.

Poor kid.

Yes, is this Dirty10? Yes, you are now kidknapped. Go to the woods and camp. Yeah that is um, dumb?

@waynefrench756

5 ай бұрын

@dirty think it took several days to find him !! so fear of evil deeds & love of FAMILY makes you hide as you have been told !!!!!

@Dirty10

5 ай бұрын

@waynefrench756 but you have to be dumb enough to believe it in the first place. Then you have to be even more dumb to not call the cops or contact a love one on top of that.

He’s so lucky to be found! I’m in Salt Lake City, Utah and it’s FREEZING cold, Brigham City is in Northern Utah, about 60 miles north of Salt Lake City, it’s even colder! It was probably 10º at night. I guessing the cyber scammers were hoping he would just die?

@imnotmike

5 ай бұрын

What? No it's not. It's been unseasonably warm. He was found pretty close to my house. I've been going up and hiking in the mountains some days with my dogs, and I wear shorts when I go up there. It's been getting up to 60 degrees during the day most days, and no colder than 30 at night. There have only been maybe 2 days in December when it really got cold, and it never got anywhere close to 10 degrees. We've seen almost no snow, even though my house is up in the mountains. I think I have shoveled my driveway once all year, and that was a long time ago. Might have been November. The coldest it's gotten all year is about 24, and that was only one night. Just look at the people doing the rescue in the photos. They're wearing light jackets. Hoodies. The only person wearing a heavy coat is him, because he had to be prepared for bad weather. He never would have survived without a heat source if it had been getting down to 10 degrees.

Ana Kasparian 🍑 oiled up

Turns out cyber kidnapping is just plain old kidnapping. New names for old grifts.

@imnotmike

5 ай бұрын

It's actually slightly different. The real issue with kidnapping is that the person you kidnap interacts with you. It's going to be very difficult to keep them from knowing any information about you. Even if you wear masks and try to hide your identity, they're likely to hear your voice, and know your general build, and information about where they were held, etc. For that reason, the end result is often that you kill the kidnapping victim at the end, even if you get your ransom, because if you leave them alive they can give the police a lot of information that might lead them to you. With cyber kidnapping, you never actually interact with the kidnapping victim, so they know nothing about you. So you don't have the incentive to kill the victim at the end, because they don't know anything that will hurt you.

Of course this is from TYT.. great journalism over there 😂😂

@denisedenise2231

5 ай бұрын

ABC reported it too

@Martinmr07

5 ай бұрын

You are like a smart person………🤦🏽.

@brianrutherfield9233

5 ай бұрын

@@denisedenise2231 they are equally dumb

@brianrutherfield9233

5 ай бұрын

@@Martinmr07 when did I claim to be smart? Or are you just making things up again?

Given that the kidnappers have put a considerable amount of research into the crime, I think it is entirely possible that these people would harm either the child or the parents.

@Dirty10

5 ай бұрын

Researching doesn't make you a killer. It just means you're a stalker

Where was the host family in all of this?

This makes zero sense

So what has happened to the human race lost the capability to think for themselves

@justbehonest66

5 ай бұрын

this worked because Chinese are greedy

@Priss933

5 ай бұрын

Well you have people believing in Trump so !!!

@bouncingBrain

5 ай бұрын

@@justbehonest66 This worked because family is important in China.

@rickpearce8206

5 ай бұрын

@@FelixFederov I am not even living in the US you pea brains can vote or support who ever you want

Sounds like an episode of Black Mirror

@samylynch5185

5 ай бұрын

They should make this an episode.

I love hearing Cenk give big passionate moralizing speeches about social issues he just learned about in this morning's production meeting.

I’ve learned (partly the hard way) that one precaution to avoid getting scammed is to be skeptical of urgings to divulge sensitive information immediately. A party insisting on not giving you time to double-check claims and deliberate ought to be a warning flag!

@Happycat8385

5 ай бұрын

💯 that's probably why they're preying on families. I feel like your more likely to drop those guards and skepticism if you think your child or loved one might be in danger. The ppl that commit these particular types of crime/fraud have to be soulless to not have a guilty conscience kick in, imo

Something doesn't smell right here y'all do realize this is probably just an easy way for a broke college student to get money

Cyber kidnapping, god damn kids are dumb these days.

They can track the money, Bitcoin is more trackable than a "duffle bag". There's an identity tied to the bank account the money was weird to, if they did convert it to Bitcoin they had to send it to an exchange which also uses KYC to open an account. Bitcoin is literally one large ledger

@wendyarnold6921

5 ай бұрын

Good to know. Thanks.

Sooo... Cyber Kidnapping is akin to terrorizing the victim to get a ransom.

Tony Stark wanted a cheeseburger too (in the Iron Man film). LOL

I wish people would stop making fun of this kid. He's from China. Do you really think this kid trusts law enforcement? (not just in China but in the US...)

When does logic ever step in?

You guys are so out of touch. It's crazy.

You talking about the majority of Americans on the election is the same thing. Nice job.

Why didn't the kid call his parents after being threatened by these kidnappers? By the way I'm not saying this to insult his intelligence.

Family members being so distant makes the threat more feasible than might otherwise be the case!

This happends in mexico alot, they use the phone instead. It reminds me of the first scene in the movie "pulp fiction" when they talk about a guy that walks into a bank and hands a telephone to the teller and on the other end of the line someone ask for all of the money

Just a Cheeseburger? No Fries?

Wait...wait...no proof that anyone was taken. Wait wait...one guy isolates himself then the rest call?? Haha. They're all part of it. Haha.

Nice! He didn't have to shoot up a Black Church in order to get the police to take him for a burger.

Poor guy 😢

Ridiculous 4:20

Lazynapping

Where is his host family?

How do you get cyber kidnapped? brother in Christ just turn off the computer..

@Seigensi

5 ай бұрын

doesn't brother in christ describe 2 people inside another man? That's just 2 men dping another. But I get that it was a joke, cus that is religion, hilarious.

@RATLORD111

5 ай бұрын

@@Seigensi no it's 1 man inside of Christ get it right no DP action just one brother in Christ

Thanks

One of the biggest issues is that most of the scams are coming out of call centers that are literally in the same buildings where most of our customer service call centers are now of course with the majority of them being in India or Bangladesh.

I had my bank account hijacked by coworkers at an digital marketing agency. Their trackers and cookies re everywhere, not hard to figure out when I’m doing bank business and then send me a fake email. Cyber criminals have day jobs.

Thats so horrible thats alot of money to get screwed out of, no one deserves that idc who you are

Bitcoin is totally traceable Jake you need to do more homework

Why do they need a new name for this activity? It's literally blackmail and extortion.

@similaritiesendhere

5 ай бұрын

This video explains how it's different before the 2 minute mark. Did you miss it?

@ArtistFormallyKnownasMC

5 ай бұрын

Come on Jada, don’t be daft. Every category of cyber crime gets its own name. Phishing, vishing, smishing, the list goes on. Clearly you’re not in the know. 😂😂

Sick world out there.

The women is trying to talk about certain types of scams, and trying to bring awareness to people. But the guy insists in bringing politics to it, yes I understand our government is a type of scam, but there’s the right moment to talk about each thing, and it’s always annoying that type of guy who turns everything into politics all the time. This guy is annoying. Sorry I don’t mean to be rude, but you probably want an honest opinion of one of your viewers.

@imnotmike

5 ай бұрын

It is a political channel.

My whole life I've been abused by Christians

@Auditor_of_the_Stupid

5 ай бұрын

Nobody cares.

@annan7728

5 ай бұрын

You are in danger if you have some money and are isolated without true love in your life. They will restrain you in senior facility, beaten you to paralyze and end your life. They will take your money away.

@Porphyrios1

5 ай бұрын

​@annan7728 He said Christians not scientologist. He hasn't grown out of his parental angst.

@annan7728

5 ай бұрын

@@Porphyrios1 Do you know it is Jesus who pays the sins and bad guys are free for doing bad things? It makes many bad guys look like a good guys in churches. The criminal rate in Christians is much higher than general society although many crimes have been hidden inside the churches.

Cenk, Very good point on isolation

This guy turned it political

@donna-bv1mk

5 ай бұрын

Everything is political these days!!! It’s pathetic!!!

@UnconventionalMarketing

5 ай бұрын

I believe he was simply pointing out how this story relates to the current state of polarized and isolated politics. It's not just about "making it political." It's not very wise to dismiss his observation just because you don't agree with it. And it's a little strange that you're defending cyber criminals in this case!

@psycheeight082

5 ай бұрын

@@UnconventionalMarketingI find it strange that you made up a whole narrative in your head. Did I say anything other than he made it political? No! Did I dismiss what he said? No! Did I defend anyone? No! Did I trigger you? I assume, yes! 😂

@UnconventionalMarketing

5 ай бұрын

@@psycheeight082 You literally said “This guy turned it political” 🤡

@psycheeight082

5 ай бұрын

@@UnconventionalMarketinghey 🤡! Read my reply better! 🤡 buahahahaha

I appreciate Cenk trying to check himself towards the end there. He looks to Ana for the "approval head nod" every so often, if you look close enough.

$80,000 dollar cheese burger 🍔

@oxygen69able

5 ай бұрын

That's funny. Top comment.

He is weak not smart enough to understand he was scammed.

A rarely eat junk food rarely eat McDonald's but I could go for a double cheeseburger right about now... 😄

Wow this is the dumbest shit ever, if someone sent me a photo of my mom saying she was kidnapped, I’d just call my mom, and ask her.

I want to add that one should also be guided by ones own ethical and moral intuition when trying to understand what's going on. No one should ever have to commit real evil to arrive at a good end, but that is exactly what despot wannabes, like Trump, will promise and people under the spell of their own fear will swallow whole.

They needed a story asap and went with the first one 😭😭

@Yu2ew

5 ай бұрын

Bro went and got in a tent like they didn’t still have those photos 😭😂

@zbaschtian

5 ай бұрын

ikr? This type of coverage almost feels foxy...

It isn't just that they are lying and claiming that this boy's family was in danger but this boy was literally in danger because although no one technically kidnapped him, he was manipulated into isolation in an obviously very stark, freezing cold, deserted area and he could have possibly died of hypothermia. So there was actual real danger here. That poor boy. He had his wits about him but 17 is so young still. I'm so glad they found him and he's physically okay.

He is save now? He was in the Hospital, that means his family has to pay more than 80 000 for the Hospital Bills😅

@darquequeen

5 ай бұрын

And you find that funny? What’s wrong with you? 😒

@danielhofig8429

5 ай бұрын

Its gallow Humor. About the terrible medical/financial Situation in the US.

This is a real life Black Mirror episode.

I was also abused at plumpton primary School by a teaching assistant called Mrs Lane and she used to hit me and she emotionally psychologically and spiritually abused me and she was coercive and she was manipulative

Still doesn't add up

just turn the computer off damn

Im cyberbroke. I can't pay my real rent.

You’re all right. This is the dumbest crap. Everything on the internet means nothing.

You're citing news nation? Interesting...

At plumpton primary School there was a teacher called Mrs Rogers and she used to physically abuse all of us

@Auditor_of_the_Stupid

5 ай бұрын

Nobody cares.

@kamilm5614

5 ай бұрын

@@Auditor_of_the_StupidI care!!!!!!!

Sounds like he is extorting his rich parents. Nobody is this dumb. This is a good way to get $.

Trust nobody

Lol. Cenk asked me to double check his facts.

It's stories like this that make me hate the internet. It wasn't like this in my day.

@duncanyourmate2433

5 ай бұрын

its April fools day , I checked , i'm wrong

sounds like a plan a cop would come up with

Riverdale? This has to be a prank.

@imnotmike

5 ай бұрын

Because of Riverdale? I live pretty close to Riverdale. They have nasty traffic. Just one street - Riverdale Road - that goes through a big business center with a Walmart and a Target and a bunch of smaller businesses. You can look it up on a map pretty easy. It's just north of Ogden.

Im not that stupid where someone can fraud me.

@notpub

5 ай бұрын

How do you know when it happens?

@willjoful

5 ай бұрын

@@notpub Because I'm too smart for stupid people.

Bullshit! Money scam!

Piers Morgan hacks into celebrities phones and the phones of missing children's parents he used to be the editor of The mirror newspaper in the UK

Didn't he have a host family?

Wtf!!!😮😮😮😮😮

What’s wrong with people why are you causing pain to innocent people. These students have come here to get an education and these people terrorize these poor people. May god protect us from evil people that do these things to people

I caught my teaching assistant watching c**************** on the dark Web

Jews For Jesus

@zodiacdogkennels1006

5 ай бұрын

The Jews is who killed hem

Some people should be barred from the Internet if you can be cyber kidnapped. Society has deemed you too stupid to surf the Internet.