How to react if a friend is arrested in Yemen (or claims to be)?

Question

My friend was arrested in Yemen and they won’t let him home so he can pay the fine what can I do? He was let go but didn’t have time to get home and pay so they arrested him again

Answer 1

• This might be a very common type of scam. You meet someone online, you chat, you form an emotional attachment, and then 'disaster strikes' and your friend suddenly needs money from you. There may be a sob story involved, or promises to pay it all back.
  If your friend is someone you know only online, you can offer emotional support, but any money will go directly to criminals. The money will not even go to your so-called friend, personally, it will line the pockets of the bosses.
• If you really know the friend personally, sending money is still not going to resolve anything. Depending on where in Yemen this happened, either the money would go to corrupt officials or to terrorists. Both might hurt your friend if they know that someone is willing to pay. Sending money to terrorists could put you into legal trouble.
• As Nicolas pointed out in the comment, these days there are also AI to fake voice messages from people you know. That would be a more sophisticated scam.
• Many embassies will offer legitimate travelers in need a loan to travel home. They also offer consular support in case of legal troubles. They are there or at least in nearby countries, they know the situation, they can help.
• What does that leave you?
  • Offer to contact the embassy or consulate of your friend's country, either in Yemen if that is not closed or in your home country. Diplomats can do things you cannot do.
  • Offer to send messages to your friend's family, if he cannot contact them himself.

Answer 2

Your friend's email or phone or chat program got hacked

Your friend may even be absolutely fine and not in Yemen at all.

In fact generally when arrested or held by Customs, they take your smart devices away from you. So if this "friend" is an internet "friend" you befriended entirely online, then it probably never was a real friend, may be a scammer all along, and this is just their standard ploy.

Answer 3

Contact the embassy and get them involved. They are the ones who can actually do something, who can verify with authorities what's going on, etc.

Everything else is just as likely to make matters worse (e.g. if it's a scam, once they have money they might as well ask for more).

Answer 4

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
-- some clever dude

I assume that your friend traveling to Yemen is in the realm of possibilities. This obviously depends on how well you know them. This is not a good tourist destination nowadays and only people who know what they are doing and have ways to save their bottoms usually go there. I liked Yemen a lot when I visited the country a few times in the '00s, I would certainly not travel there today.

But let's imagine your friend got there without any preparation with your phone number as the ultimate get-out-of-jail card.

There are many ways your friend could have contacted you:

• by email: this is very likely to be a scam. A very typical one. Except if you really, really know that person you should give up now.

• by phone: since your name looks American (a wild guess, but you do not have any country tag), the CallerID is easy to spoof. This means that the "John Smith" popping up on your phone (because he is in your contacts) may not be John Smith at all. If he left a generic message it is very likely to be a scam. Except if you know them very, very well and can positively identify them though this message, I would give up at that point

• by the embassy/consulate though official routes in your country. This is better but you need to call these authorities using the phone number you find on Google to make sure it is legitimate.

In other words - everything you receive can be faked and you need to engage into better authentication. This is not difficult if you know the person very well. Until the moment you can say "the information they provided cannot come from anyone but them", twice :), then it is a scam. Any doubt and I would give up.

Finally your friend may be real and in Yemen, waiting for some help. This happens and happened to me once (in a different country). Is there a reason why they would call you specifically? Maybe there is, you need to take that into account.

To summarize: assume that this is a scam. Ensure that you have tangible evidence that this is not a scam before you proceed forward. And when you proceed you may want to suggest them to contact your country's consulate (if there is one, Yemen is a complicated country today) and you should also contact your authorities.

Answer 5

1> Try to contact you friend directly going in person at his place (not on his mobile / email / messaging app) or call at home or office number or also his family to confirm, if he answers at his home's phone he's definetly not in Yemen
2> If the claim seems to be true, contact your country's embassy in Yemen tell them the situation and ask them what to do next.
3> If you never met in person, good chance is that you were targeted as "chicken" and the whole "friendship" was a plot to steal you money.