Technology

the title already is about "improving kidnapping scam"

so yes, that "kidnapping scam" seems to be a thing

and scams generally work best if done low effort

fun fact: most of the time you don't want to waste time on less-guilible people, so making your scam less obvious isn't that usefull.

Yes, the article is about a specific instance of it happening.

I think this might be a case where the generic "scams generally work best if done low effort" doesn't apply, since to be successful, this sort of scam requires some specifics. The not-kidnapped daughter was away training for a ski race. Blasting "we kidnapped your daughter" to people whose daughter is sitting on the couch next to them or people without daughters doesn't work at all.

The article mentions people lose an average of $11k in these scams, which means they're probably working best when targeting people with some savings.