"It had my sister's contact on the phone, so it looked exactly like she was calling me," one victim tells Inside Edition. "I have a picture for her for the contact — that popped up."
"I was terrified that he was going to kill my sister."
Those are the words of Beth Royce.
This home surveillance footage shows Beth on the phone with a man who claimed he had kidnapped her sister.
She says what made it all seem so real is the fact that the call came from her sister Kayla's phone number.
Beth also lives in Pennsylvania, over 2500 miles away from her sister in Washington.
"It had my sister's contact on the phone, so it looked exactly like she was calling me," Beth tells Inside Edition. "I have a picture for her for the contact — that popped up."
She says the caller demanded money or he'd kill her.
"He was saying that I'm gonna shoot your sister in the head," says Beth. "Those were his exact words."
Beth says that at the same time she could hear crying in the background.
Panic-stricken, Beth quickly transferred $1000 to the alleged kidnapper.
"It was the scariest moment of my life. It was so scary. I was frantic," says Beth.
Beth's mother, Rosemarie, was home with Beth when she received the call.
"She came rushing in my room saying they've got Kayla," says Rosemarie.
She then called Kayla's cellphone even though it was 4 a.m. in Seattle where Kayla lives.
Kayla answered the phone.
"And I screamed, I said, 'Oh, my God, Mom, what is happening?'" says Kayla. "And she was like, 'Beth is on the phone with somebody who says that they have you kidnapped.' And I was like, 'well, they don't.'"
It turns out that it was a sophisticated scam known as caller ID spoofing.
Scammers make it seem as if an incoming call is coming from someone on your private phone contact list.
"I just started crying once I found that she was okay," says Rosemarie,
The next call the family made was to the police
The Royce family was a victim of what is being called "virtual kidnapping," and the FBI says that it is on the rise.
Listen to the call another woman got from a virtual kidnapper.
"The life of your husband is in danger right now. Are you going to help him or no?" says the virtual kidnapper. "Of course because my brother wants to kill him."
The virtual kidnapper then creates a sense of urgency, saying: "Listen sweetheart, your husband's got a jaw fracture, he's bleeding..."
Beth Royce is now committed to getting the word out, and is using social media to spread the word.
The FBI suggests that any individual who gets a call like the one Beth received asks to speak directly to the family member and if they will not put them on the phone, get them to describe the person or the car they are driving.
