Sao Paulo - A young Brazilian woman staged her own kidnapping with the help of her boyfriend and a friend in order to pocket the $57 000 ransom paid out by her panicked parents, media reported on Wednesday.
Investigators uncovered the scam less than a day after the parents paid the cash following a call on Monday from her supposed captors, who threatened to kill their cherished daughter, CBN radio said.
"We discovered that it was an extortion attempt by the young woman to her family," police chief Joao Manoel Garcia Alonso told the radio in the southern state of Parana where the fake abduction took place.
The trio involved, aged between 21 and 26, face between four and 10 years in prison if convicted. - Sapa-AFP