CORPUS CHRISTI – With the recent security breaches affecting millions of people, your phone number, email, and even home address could fall into the wrong hands.
Emmanuel Villanueva says he received an alarming text this afternoon saying he may have to pay a ransom to get his family member out of a hostage situation.
The text message he received said that one of his family member got in a car accident, and he needed to call a certain phone number.
“We gave them a call and they ended up saying that one of my relatives…and they asked me if I had a brother or sister in Corpus Christi. And I said yes,” Emmanuel Villanueva, a Corpus Christi Resident remembers.
That is when the caller on the line told him they got in a car accident with his sister at a local gas station.
“Their car was on a jack, and my sister backed up, she hit them, and when she hit them, the jack fell on the 10-year-old nephew’s leg,” Villanueva says.
The caller then said Emmanuel’s sister fled the scene, and the caller caught her at a red light.
“And they took the keys and the phone because she was trying to call 911. But they said they are in trouble with the law so they couldn’t call 911, so they ended up taking her,” Villanueva says.
That is when the caller threatened him by saying there was only one way to get his sister back.
“If I wanted to get her back, we had to pay the medical expense for the 10-year-old nephew,” Villanueva recalls.
That is when Emmanuel paused and told his wife to call his sister. While the wife called he asked the caller questions.
“I finally told him give me the description of the car or the girl…and they said we will just end it right here,” Villanueva says.
It could’ve ended badly. But Emmanuel says thanks to us, he knew what to do.
“The good thing of the news is that the news reports it all so we are able to see them all and stuff like that. I just knew from the begginning that this was kind of fishy,” Villanueva says.
Mr. Villanueva also has great advice for others who might receive suspicious calls or texts.
Ask questions. Lots of them. To see if a possible scammer really knows what they are talking about.
Don’t feel the need to make a decision right then and there to wire money.
And check, double check, and triple check with family members or friends to see if they are really in trouble.