Oakland Unified Warns Parents of Phone Scams Claiming Children Were Kidnapped

Oakland Unified School District officials are alerting parents to a new scam involving fake calls from individuals falsely claiming to have kidnapped their children, according to the Mercury News. The scammers, who have reportedly been active during the fall semester, are demanding a ransom— even using alarming audio recordings of children crying out in distress in the background. In several instances, scammers demonstrated a disconcerting level of familiarity with the targeted families, including knowledge of children’s names, the Mercury News reported. Despite these tactics, the school district has confirmed all the students mentioned in the calls were safely at school....