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PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - A woman is threatened her family will be killed if she doesn't pay up. What sounds like a horror movie is actually a real life phone scam being played out. Now, police are warning others especially the elderly to be aware.
"I just started freaking out and I was just like, wait what is going on?"
Mindi Stein, of Whitemarsh Township, recalled the terrifying call she got while on the job.
My voice is getting louder and louder and I'm in the middle of work and so everyone starts gathering around me cause they could hear that something was going on and someone screaming through the line," she told FOX 29.
A man yelling at her for money or else promising great harm to her daughter.
"He basically said to me, he's like, 'Mrs. Stein, I have your daughter and if you don't give me money right away I'm going to kill her. And then all of the sudden a girl gets on the phone and it's a little girl hysterically crying saying, ''Mommy, I'm really, really scared and help me, they're throwing me into a van," Stein explained. "The man gets back on the phone and he's like, 'Give me money now or I'm going to start chopping off her fingers."
The scariest part? The man calling from Mexico mentioned her daughter by name.
"That really kind of put me over the edge," she said.
The only thing is her daughter was actually home sick from school making her realize it was a scam.
"It just freaked me out. If my daughter was at school today I would have been petrified because it was a little girl screaming and crying in the background," she said.
She says she reported the call to police and wants you to be aware if you get a similar call.
"I would say not to panic because there's so many scams going around right now and if there's somebody else by your side--make sure have them pick up the call--have them call your spouse or whomever to find out where your loved one is."