The trend towards terrorizing immigrant and particularly Asian families with what is now being called “cyber-kidnapping” is not a new phenomenon. Unscrupulous con artists exhibiting some degree of organized criminal planning continue to effectively use threats, intimidation and urgency to victimize people by socially engineering them to do literally whatever they can. This is not ‘the evolution’ of a trend but simply the exploitation of human nature.

Simply browsing through the headlines associated with this story points to another trend that we should all by now be immune to: that of exploiting fear, uncertainty and doubt to position anecdotal events as the terrifying growth of “unrelenting crime waves washing up on our shores”.

Sprinkled with buzzwords like AI, ransom and cyber alarmist narratives with incendiary headlines are crafted to deliver profitable clicks, distracting views and invasive trackers. We all need to remember that indulging our dopamine cravings while steering our attention away from important trends carries the risk of eroding our trust, privacy and security at a time when these are in short supply.

Hacker in disguise while working on multiple screens
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