Police in US Utah found the Chinese exchange student alone and cold in a tent on New Year’s Eve, reports CNN.
The Riverdale Police Department says Kai Zhuang, 17, was reported missing a few days earlier by his school.
The 17-year-old’s parents in China contacted the school after they received a photo of their son, with threats of violence and a demand for a ransom of $80,000, which corresponds to over SEK 800,000.
Cold and scared
Rescuers found Kai Zhuang “alive but very cold and scared” in the mountains near Brigham City, after tracing Zhuang’s bank and phone records.
Police believe he was there on instructions from his cyber kidnappers.
The tent had no heat source at all, apart from a blanket and a sleeping bag. The 17-year-old had limited food and water. In the tent were also several phones that the police assume were used to carry out the kidnapping.
Several Chinese affected
Kai Zhuang escaped without major injuries and was given a cheeseburger by the Brigham City Fire Department.
According to the FBI, several other foreign exchange students, especially Chinese, have been subjected to similar cases of cyberkidnapping in the United States, writes CNN.
The crime involves remote perpetrators manipulating and threatening their victims, ordering them to isolate themselves, monitoring them via video calls and demanding ransoms from their families.