Anna Khait Receives Ransom Call Over Dads Supposed Kidnap

Poker-pro Anna Khait was among those who were targeted in a ‘virtual kidnapping’ extortion attempt, receiving a call from scammers claiming to be holding her father hostage and demanding money for his release…

Khait tweeted her call with the alleged kidnappers, copying in various law enforcement agencies in the hope of tracking down the scammers, claiming ‘multiple victims’ of the spate of recent false calls, a fact which several news agencies have also picked up on this week.

On Friday, the Monroe CT Police Department released information about the extortion attempt…

…while NBC.com quoted the FBI as claiming that ‘con artists, usually in Mexico, find family names and phone numbers on social media to target their victims — demanding lucrative ransoms from close relatives’ back in November, news of similar scams across the USA dating back several years.

New Yorker Khait, whose live tournament earnings of $12,811 likely aren’t fully representative of her poker winnings, can be heard attempting to calm the extortionist down in the video above, telling the caller:

“You have to wait, I have to know what’s going on… I have to know the doctor’s name where I am sending the money”.

Khait, who appeared on the reality TV show Survivor back in 2016 and who is an outspoken Republican and Trump supporter and spends her time between New York and New Jersey, seemed to be aware that the call was a scam, or had at least found out, and urged the authorities to do something about it – amid reports that many others had actually sent money to the fake kidnappers.

After a recent spate of similar offences in Canada, Cbcnews.com stated ‘the FBI website says people confronted with this scam should hang up immediately and try to contact their loved one’ adding that ‘the agency advises against wiring the ransom, and says you should never attempt to deliver money in person’.