Anonymous caller gives ASU mom a choice: money or her daughter's life

[Mosby]

One out-of-state Sun Devil mother experienced her worst nightmare yesterday when she was told by an anonymous caller that she would never see her daughter again — unless, of course, she could "cough up the bucks."

Seven hours away from ASU in Thousand Oaks, California, Helene Sicherman received the phone call from a man who identified himself as "Diablo." In the background of the phone call, Sicherman could hear a female voice crying out; unrecognizable words were being screamed through tears. Her heart dropped.

The caller informed Sicherman that he had taken her daughter, an ASU student, because she had supposedly witnessed a murder — something Diablo said she shouldn't have seen.

So, the caller told Sicherman to "cough up the bucks," or he would drug her daughter, ASU software engineering sophomore Alonna Hellinger, and take her into Mexico.

“He wouldn't give me any time to collect my thoughts or to get to my bank in Pasadena or to talk to my daughter," Sicherman posted in a private Facebook group. "He did keep offering to send me a finger.”

As Sicherman drove to the nearest Chase Bank, Diablo remained on the phone and listened to her every move. If she ended the call, she was told she would never get a call back and her daughter would be killed.

At the bank, the Sun Devil mom wrote notes to the tellers to explain what was going on, and to ask them to contact her husband who could call their daughter and see if she was OK.

http://www.statepress.com/article/2016/09/spcampus-asu-mom-phone-call-parents-worst-nightmare

[Warpy]

1. Social media? That's what this scumbag has been mining

for information so that he can pull this incredibly cruel scam. At least this woman was savvy enough to write a note to alert the bank.

It would have been nice had the cops managed to trace the calls. It might have been comforting for the mom to find out he was a local loser instead of an AZ one.

[Hav]

2. Sounds similar to the IRS phone scam

They too want you to stay on the phone or they will send someone to arrest you for some imaginary unpaid taxes. This sounds like an extreme version to increase the horror for the scam victim. These people are disgusting.

[niyad]

4. "I am sorry, I didn't quite catch that. would you mind repeating it into my recorder while

I wait for the sheriff?"

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. This feels like an updated version

of the email purportedly from a friend who is on an overseas vacation, has lost her wallet, and needs money wired immediately. Or that a grandson in is jail somewhere.

[Skittles]

5. hard to believe how naive people can be

seriously