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Subscribe to RSSA U.S. citizen who had been lured to Benin, in West Africa, by criminals he met online has been freed by security forces, Reuters reported.
"The kidnappers are in the hands of the police," said Frank Kinninvo, a spokesman from Benin’s interior ministry, according to Reuters. The American was found in the Mono region in the southwestern part of the country.
Officials, who did not identify the U.S. national, said he had traveled to Benin to meet people from there and Nigeria. He was abducted and forced to ask his family for a ransom payment, according to Reuters. The Reuters source said the kidnappers were not tied to pirates that operate in the region.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in Cotonou, Benin released a statement about the kidnapping.
“The U.S. Embassy in Cotonou has no reason to believe that other U.S. citizens or interests are at risk,” the statement said. “All U.S. citizens are encouraged to remain conscious of their personal security.”
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Kidnappings of foreigners are rare in Benin, a French-speaking country of about 9 million people, although there have been several abductions in Nigeria this year.
Report: American kidnapped in Benin lured by contacts made on Internet
There have been several other cases in the last two years of foreigners who were kidnapped in West Africa after making contacts on the Internet.
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How naive is this person? Scams coming out of Africa are so common that only a person confined to a closet for the last several years wouldn't know about them. What could possibly have induced him to go there?
Except for the fact that he was rescued, that may have been the best part of the story and unfortunately it's the part that's missing.
LURED ? How interesting this word LURED.
What bothers me most is NO NAME identified.
Seems to me just another indivual fishing the internet fishing for away to capitalize and exploit people in another land for personal gain. These anomonist people seem to be the prediators in the world who continue to do their corruption. They take the risk and when caught or fall into a trap they need to be bailed out and saved. Shame it's another American. A dumb one again.
The world isn't going to change regarding things of this nature.
I am interested to find the indentity of this person and what his connections are here in the United States.
Maybe if you or I went there we could get captured too and have a ransome made. But trust me. I am not worth capturing and don't think anybody would even care or take action.
It wouldn't even make the news. Because I have no connections other than the internet. I don't even have the money for a plane ticket to get there.
Stupid is a stupid does.
Could be a dating site, have seen many scammers on them, mostly from Ghana.