Technology
This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
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Yes, the article is about a specific instance of it happening.
I think this might be a case where the generic "scams generally work best if done low effort" doesn't apply, since to be successful, this sort of scam requires some specifics. The not-kidnapped daughter was away training for a ski race. Blasting "we kidnapped your daughter" to people whose daughter is sitting on the couch next to them or people without daughters doesn't work at all.
The article mentions people lose an average of $11k in these scams, which means they're probably working best when targeting people with some savings.