It is a scam like you have never seen before.
As a parent, can you imagine receiving a terrifying phone call where you truly believe your child is on the other end of the line, begging for your help?
In a rare recording, a Valley woman caught most of a scammer's attempt to get cash from her Tuesday morning; using her child as bait.
Kate Cass said she had a weird phone number call her while at work. Her teenage daughter is visiting family out of state, so she decided to pick up.
But, as soon as she answered, she heard her daughter's voice.
“The way she cried, the way she talks - all of it. She was begging for help,” Cass said.
"It was her voice, crying saying - 'Mom, I'm in a car. I'm with a man. He put me in here, I don't know where I'm going,'" Cass described. "And it was her voice exactly in distress and then it cuts out to, 'Give me the phone' and a man getting on the phone."
In the recording, you can hear her ask to talk to her daughter again. The man responds with "You're going to have me hang up on you and you can forget about your daughter, alright?"
Cass said the man asked her how much cash she could get to him as quickly as possible. He even had the nerve to tell her to 'calm down' repeatedly and that she should "Thank God" that she wasn't "speaking to a rapist or a psychopath."
"When the man identified himself, he said, your daughter was at a 'certain location,'" Cass explained. "And that was the exact location my daughter was at."
As she stayed on the phone, a co-worker Facetimed Cass' daughter for herself. She answered - safe and sound.
With tabs on her daughter, Cass ended the call stunned with what had just happened.
"Why my little family? Why me? Why my daughter? You have no clue it could happen to anybody," Cass said.
Investigators are not 100% sure how the scammer knew so much about the teen or how they imitated or stole her voice.
While all of it sinks in, Cass said it is important for as many people as possible to know what happened.
"She gets home Saturday and I might put her in a bubble for a little bit," Cass laughed. "It's your own kid. There's nothing that could replace your child."
Our investigative team here at ABC15 suggests creating a code word that only you and your loved ones know. That way - you can ask for that exact word or phrase if something similar happens to you.
Phoenix police also tell us, random kidnappings are extremely rare - so, most likely - it is a scam if you get one of these calls. They advise you to document everything, just like Cass, and contact them for help.
