The New York music-industry executive was one such person caught in the crosshairs. “My wife thought it sounded like [our daughter], but I don’t know. She was caught up in the panic of the moment,” says the executive, who didn’t want to use his name for fear of being targeted again. “It was 25 minutes of pure horror. You’re living in this horror movie, the worst possible thing that could happen to you as a parent. It’s the worst possible feeling.”

Before the couple hopped in their car and headed to the assigned Walmart, the executive called Herman Weisberg, a private investigator he has worked with in the past. Weisberg, a former NYPD officer whose firm SAGE Intelligence provides protection for a number of high-profile entertainment-industry figures, immediately called the school and ascertained the teen’s whereabouts, and then determined that the scammers were using a burner phone.

Around the time that Covid lockdowns ended and schools pivoted from online to in-person learning, Weisberg began fielding calls from his base of some 200 clients in New York and L.A. with similar stories.