The General Directorate of the Internal Security Forces – Public Relations Division issued a communiqué stating: “Recently, many Syrians residing on Lebanese territory have been subjected to kidnappings on the Syrian-Lebanese border, as the kidnappers demand a financial ransom from their families in exchange for their release, in addition to their exposure beaten and tortured, and some of them died at their hands.”
The communication added, “The Information Division of the Internal Security Forces has previously followed up this file, and on previous dates it stopped members of networks and gangs carrying out these operations.”
He continued, “As a result of the follow-up and extensive investigations carried out by the specialized sectors in the Information Division to limit these operations and reveal the identity of those involved in them and pursue and arrest them, the Division found that members of the aforementioned kidnapping networks lure their Syrian victims to the Lebanese-Syrian border in several ways, for example:
First: Through the pages of social networking sites, especially the “TikTok” application, by creating fake accounts that are used in luring operations, during which they are deluded with the possibility of providing them with entry visas to the countries of the European Union, and they are asked to go to the Lebanese-Syrian border to stamp their passports. And upon their arrival in the Bekaa region, they are kidnapped and taken to the Syrian interior, and a financial ransom is demanded from their relatives in exchange for their liberation.
Second: Through smuggling operations through illegal crossings to and from the Lebanese interior, so that members of the kidnapping network delude their victims of the possibility of securing their smuggling operation illegally in exchange for a sum of money, and upon their arrival at the Lebanese-Syrian border they blackmail and kidnap them and demand a financial ransom from their families in exchange for their release and not harm them.”
The communication concluded, “Therefore, the General Directorate of the Internal Security Forces warns Syrians residing on Lebanese territory not to fall victim to being lured through social media – the TikTok application, especially the fake account: @ABOAAZAAM235.”
2023-08-04 07:38:59
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