There are tons of wacky, borderline illegal moneymaking schemes out there. Want to flip real estate? Maybe sell leggings to housewives that shouldn’t wear them out of the house? How about Amway, remember that? Mary Kay anyone?
While most of those are legal, if not barely, there are lots of illegal scams floating around that can get you in a lot of trouble. Chain letters, pyramid schemes, the internet is rife with get rich quick schemes.
The need to work from home, or just side hustle is more apparent in 2022 then ever. Times are tough folks, you gotta do whatever it takes to make ends meet. Don’t have time to drive Uber? Don’t want to deliver food? Maybe a fake kidnapping or four? Wait, what? Recently a woman in Spain discovered that fourth time isn’t the charm, and now she is facing serious charges, as well as an uncomfortable holiday season with her family. Check this out from the New York Post:
A 30-year-old woman has been arrested on the Spanish island of Tenerife for allegedly faking her own kidnapping four times to extort her mother.
The woman allegedly sent her mother a video earlier this week that showed her blindfolded and smeared with blood. In the clip a man is also seen behind her with a knife.
“Mommy. They’ve kidnapped me,” the woman sobs.
“You can’t say anything to the police. If you do, they’ll kill me.”
Woman arrested after faking kidnapping 4 times to extort her mom https://t.co/diXsYikI5a via @nypost
— Rob Mattox (@RobMattox2) September 7, 2022
Clearly mom wasn’t buying it this time. Truly a gutsy play, faking your own kidnapping. Is the job market so dire on the island of Tenerife that “fake kidnapping” was the only side hustle available? Is there no Door Dash?
She goes on to say how her captors beat her and deprived her of food.
This was not the first time the woman’s mother received such a disturbing demand. Investigators later found out that the mother previously made three payments totaling $45,000, also in response to threats on her daughter’s life.
There had to be questions in the mother’s mind. Like, ‘who keeps kidnapping my daughter’, and ‘why is she the only person on Tenerife getting snatched up on the reg.’ Valid questions, but considering mom already paid three times, I suppose a fourth attempt wasn’t a crazy idea. At least no crazier than the other three.
According to a statement by the Civil Guard, she told her mother the kidnappers would release her for 50,000 euros ($50,000).
According to the Times of London, police discovered the ruse after looking into the daughter’s partner, whose family was also involved in the kidnapping plot.
Within 24 hours of the initial investigation, authorities discovered that the daughter was unharmed and free to leave.
On Sept. 5, police confirmed the arrest of the daughter and four co-conspirators at a slot-machine casino.
So, the daughter hatched a kidnapping plot with the family of her partner and proceeded to fleece mom three times successfully and celebrated at the slot casino? Great plan! At a certain point, I’m probably going to let them keep her. Not to sound like a monster, but you have to make hard decisions!
This scam fell apart, no one was harmed, and mom is 45k lighter, but the daughter and her conspirators are facing 1 to 5 in a fine Italian prison. Probably should’ve considered Door Dash.
This story syndicated with permission from For the Love of News