Scam Phone Calls from Jail Rampant in Mexico Patricia Laya and Nacha Cattan - Bloomberg
go to original June 27, 2014

Every day, hundreds of prisoners across Mexico scan phone books looking for their next victim.

Using mobile phones smuggled into their jail cells, they make thousands of calls a day in search of someone to swindle. Some demand ransom payments for kidnappings that never really happened. Others ask for a bank deposit to claim a prize that doesn’t exist. A successful deception earns an average bounty of 5,000 pesos ($385) in the world of organized crime.

About 10,000 people a month report such telephone extortion calls to a citizen group that works with law-enforcement authorities in Mexico City. Kidnappings were up 21 percent last year in Mexico, creating an uneasy climate that extortionists can exploit. Prisons have failed to quell the illegal behavior with call-blocking technology, and now lawmakers are considering pinning more responsibility on wireless companies like America Movil SAB.

“There’s a climate of social fear in which anything can be possible, so when someone calls to tell you your son has been kidnapped, it’s believable,” said Elena Azaola, who specializes in criminal behavior at Mexico’s Center for Advanced Studies and Research in Social Anthropology.

Violence related to organized crime has reduced economic growth by about one percentage point each year, according to government estimates. It’s difficult to pinpoint how much Mexicans shell out each year in extortion payments because many choose not to report the crime, according to research firm CIDE.

Read the rest at Bloomberg

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!