Criminals are carrying out a disturbing trend where they’re using ride-sharing vehicles to abduct minors, in line with considered one of the nation’s top law enforcement agencies.
“It’s affected my school life, my friends, my family,” one 15-year-old girl who was a victim of an attempted abduction said in 2019, in line with ABC News. “It’s had such a negative impact on me. In all places I am going, I feel scared because I’m so rather more aware of my surroundings now.”
The teenager recounted that she had ceaselessly used ride-sharing services within the Recent York area, but in the summertime of 2019, an Uber driver picked her up and tried to abduct her. The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office said on the time that the motive force tried to force her to go to her home, “where he intended to sexually assault her.”
Now, the FBI is warning that similar incidents have turn out to be a “trend,” and issued a public service announcement making Americans aware.
“Because the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, law enforcement received several reports of rideshare services getting used to facilitate child abduction,” the FBI said last month within the PSA, the Hill reported.
The federal agency warned that the criminals are using ride-sharing vehicles attributable to the “lower likelihood of detection and ease of facilitation.”
“While other modes of transportation were used in the course of the pandemic, the privacy of ride-share services allowed criminal actors to obfuscate potential witness identification and afforded them direct transportation,” the FBI stated.
The FBI specifically pointed to 1 incident this 12 months, when a 16-year-old Texas boy who requested an Uber ride found himself abducted. The teenager had ordered an Uber for a roughly 20-mile trip in April and was allegedly offered something to drink in the course of the ride. The boy woke up later that day at a house 31 miles away from his destination. He fled the property to a close-by home and alerted authorities.
In one other case cited by the FBI, a toddler was abducted in Mexico City in February when the 7-year-old boy’s father asked a ride-share driver to make a pit stop at a flower stand. The daddy exited the vehicle and the motive force left with the young boy. The kid was recovered after he called his mom from the automotive.
Automobile-share services have exploded in popularity during the last decade. Although Uber and Lyft ban people under the age of 18 from having their very own accounts or from riding in automotive shares with out a guardian, some still get around the principles by utilizing an adult’s account.
“I do know a whole lot of drivers who’ve faced outraged parents,” Larry Duncan, a Lyft driver in Bowling Green, Kentucky, told Vox in 2019. “They yell and scream for you to provide their kids a ride, and what a few of us attempt to do, we are saying that the parent can ride with the child, but they’ll’t be alone.”
A study in 2019 found that many parents were concerned about their kids taking ride-share services alone, citing a bevy of reasons similar to teens not wearing seatbelts or the motive force being distracted by their phone or speeding.
One among the highest concerns, was that the minors could be sexually assaulted by a driver, in line with the 2019 Ipsos Public Affairs study. Nearly 80% of fogeys of daughters were frightened their child would face assault, while 55% of fogeys frightened the identical could occur to their sons.
“Safety is paramount to the Uber experience and the report outlined by the FBI is amazingly concerning,” an Uber spokesperson told Fox News Digital when approached for comment on the FBI’s PSA. “We’re all the time working to construct features and policies designed with safety in mind, which is why we’ve introduced many safety features into the app, just like the Emergency Button; Live Help from a Safety Agent; Text-to-911 capability (where available); and GPS tracking on every trip. We also aim to do our part to lift awareness of those societal issues through education to assist drivers spot the signs of human trafficking and report it.”
The spokesperson also noted that every one drivers undergo “background checks on the federal, state and native level,” and that riders “must provide valid phone numbers, email addresses, and payment methods with a view to use the platform – which is greater than many other types of transportation require.”
“We all know our work on safety is rarely done, and we’re committed to all the time working to lift the bar.”
Experts have also warned that teenagers are sometimes more timid about speaking up if something feels off during their ride.
“Teens may feel awkward or inhibited to talk up in the event that they notice a driver shouldn’t be driving safely or if something does ‘not feel right’ in regards to the automotive or the motive force,” pediatrician and co-director of the 2019 poll Gary Freed told the Detroit Free Press. “Parents should empower their teens to feel comfortable to talk out or refuse a ride. They needs to be reminded that they’re entering into a vehicle with someone they have no idea, and that it is crucial for them be especially attentive to anything that will risk their safety.”
The FBI is asking on anyone who sees suspicious behavior to report it to local authorities immediately.
Lyft didn’t reply to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the FBI’s PSA.
Criminals are carrying out a disturbing trend where they’re using ride-sharing vehicles to abduct minors, in line with considered one of the nation’s top law enforcement agencies.
“It’s affected my school life, my friends, my family,” one 15-year-old girl who was a victim of an attempted abduction said in 2019, in line with ABC News. “It’s had such a negative impact on me. In all places I am going, I feel scared because I’m so rather more aware of my surroundings now.”
The teenager recounted that she had ceaselessly used ride-sharing services within the Recent York area, but in the summertime of 2019, an Uber driver picked her up and tried to abduct her. The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office said on the time that the motive force tried to force her to go to her home, “where he intended to sexually assault her.”
Now, the FBI is warning that similar incidents have turn out to be a “trend,” and issued a public service announcement making Americans aware.
“Because the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, law enforcement received several reports of rideshare services getting used to facilitate child abduction,” the FBI said last month within the PSA, the Hill reported.
The federal agency warned that the criminals are using ride-sharing vehicles attributable to the “lower likelihood of detection and ease of facilitation.”
“While other modes of transportation were used in the course of the pandemic, the privacy of ride-share services allowed criminal actors to obfuscate potential witness identification and afforded them direct transportation,” the FBI stated.
The FBI specifically pointed to 1 incident this 12 months, when a 16-year-old Texas boy who requested an Uber ride found himself abducted. The teenager had ordered an Uber for a roughly 20-mile trip in April and was allegedly offered something to drink in the course of the ride. The boy woke up later that day at a house 31 miles away from his destination. He fled the property to a close-by home and alerted authorities.
In one other case cited by the FBI, a toddler was abducted in Mexico City in February when the 7-year-old boy’s father asked a ride-share driver to make a pit stop at a flower stand. The daddy exited the vehicle and the motive force left with the young boy. The kid was recovered after he called his mom from the automotive.
Automobile-share services have exploded in popularity during the last decade. Although Uber and Lyft ban people under the age of 18 from having their very own accounts or from riding in automotive shares with out a guardian, some still get around the principles by utilizing an adult’s account.
“I do know a whole lot of drivers who’ve faced outraged parents,” Larry Duncan, a Lyft driver in Bowling Green, Kentucky, told Vox in 2019. “They yell and scream for you to provide their kids a ride, and what a few of us attempt to do, we are saying that the parent can ride with the child, but they’ll’t be alone.”
A study in 2019 found that many parents were concerned about their kids taking ride-share services alone, citing a bevy of reasons similar to teens not wearing seatbelts or the motive force being distracted by their phone or speeding.
One among the highest concerns, was that the minors could be sexually assaulted by a driver, in line with the 2019 Ipsos Public Affairs study. Nearly 80% of fogeys of daughters were frightened their child would face assault, while 55% of fogeys frightened the identical could occur to their sons.
“Safety is paramount to the Uber experience and the report outlined by the FBI is amazingly concerning,” an Uber spokesperson told Fox News Digital when approached for comment on the FBI’s PSA. “We’re all the time working to construct features and policies designed with safety in mind, which is why we’ve introduced many safety features into the app, just like the Emergency Button; Live Help from a Safety Agent; Text-to-911 capability (where available); and GPS tracking on every trip. We also aim to do our part to lift awareness of those societal issues through education to assist drivers spot the signs of human trafficking and report it.”
The spokesperson also noted that every one drivers undergo “background checks on the federal, state and native level,” and that riders “must provide valid phone numbers, email addresses, and payment methods with a view to use the platform – which is greater than many other types of transportation require.”
“We all know our work on safety is rarely done, and we’re committed to all the time working to lift the bar.”
Experts have also warned that teenagers are sometimes more timid about speaking up if something feels off during their ride.
“Teens may feel awkward or inhibited to talk up in the event that they notice a driver shouldn’t be driving safely or if something does ‘not feel right’ in regards to the automotive or the motive force,” pediatrician and co-director of the 2019 poll Gary Freed told the Detroit Free Press. “Parents should empower their teens to feel comfortable to talk out or refuse a ride. They needs to be reminded that they’re entering into a vehicle with someone they have no idea, and that it is crucial for them be especially attentive to anything that will risk their safety.”
The FBI is asking on anyone who sees suspicious behavior to report it to local authorities immediately.
Lyft didn’t reply to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the FBI’s PSA.
