{"id":43085,"date":"2024-01-02T22:28:05","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T22:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/chinese-exchange-student-living-in-the-us-found-in-woods-after-cyber-kidnapping-scam\/"},"modified":"2024-01-02T22:28:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T22:28:05","slug":"chinese-exchange-student-living-in-the-us-found-in-woods-after-cyber-kidnapping-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/chinese-exchange-student-living-in-the-us-found-in-woods-after-cyber-kidnapping-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese exchange student living in the US found in woods after \u2018cyber kidnapping\u2019 scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>A Chinese exchange student who fell victim to a \u201ccyber kidnapping\u201d scam in which his parents were extorted for $80,000, was found alive but \u201ccold and scared\u201d in a tent in the Utah wilderness, police said.<\/p>\n<p>Kai Zhuang, age 17, was reported missing on Thursday after his parents in China told officials at his host high school in Riverdale, Utah that he appeared to have been kidnapped and a ransom had been requested.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1764628\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The case followed a typical pattern for cyber kidnapping, in which \u201ckidnappers\u201d tell a victim to isolate and provide pictures of themselves as if being held captive \u2014 photos that are then sent to the victim\u2019s family to extort payment.<\/p>\n<p>The victims comply under the belief their family will otherwise be harmed.<\/p>\n<p>After analysing bank records, purchases and phone ping records in a days-long search, police became convinced he was isolating in a tent some 40 kilometres north in a large area near Brigham City.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDue to the cold weather in Utah this time of year, we became additionally concerned for the victim\u2019s safety in that he may freeze to death overnight,\u201d the Riverdale Police Department said in a press release after he was found on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>A sergeant hiking on foot up a mountainside discovered Kai\u2019s tent \u2014 which had no heat source but only \u201ca heat blanket, a sleeping bag, limited food and water and several phones that were presumed to be used to carry out the cyber kidnapping,\u201d the department said.<\/p>\n<p>The detective \u201ccontacted the victim inside the tent and found he was alive but very cold and scared.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After being rescued, Kai \u201crequested a warm cheeseburger\u201d and to speak to his family, which had paid $80,000 to bank accounts in China during the scam, according to Riverdale police.<\/p>\n<p>Kai\u2019s host family in Riverdale had initially been unaware he was missing, having heard him in the kitchen in the early morning of the day of his disappearance.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1155952\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Riverdale police worked with the FBI, the US embassy in China and Chinese officials to find the missing teenager, according to the press release.<\/p>\n<p>The Chinese embassy in Washington warned its citizens living in the United States to \u201cboost safety awareness, take necessary precautions, and stay vigilant against \u2018virtual kidnapping\u2019 and other forms of telecom and online fraud,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>Cyber kidnappers have been targeting foreign exchange students recently, and in particular, Chinese foreign exchange students, Riverdale police said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Chinese exchange student who fell victim to a \u201ccyber kidnapping\u201d scam in which his parents were extorted for $80,000, was found alive but \u201ccold and scared\u201d in a tent in the Utah wilderness, police said. Kai Zhuang, age 17, was reported missing on Thursday after his parents in China told officials at his host [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/01\/02133741ac9a97d.jpg?r=133835","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}