Ransom is a crime usually secondary to the kidnapping of a person or the unlawful taking of valuable property to extort another to pay for its safe return
Kidnapping for ransom is considered a form of economic kidnapping or kidnapping for profit. At the federal level, such crimes are considered predatory crimes carried out by criminal organizations rather than single offenders.
Currently, the most common form of ransom is a cyber ransom, in which a corporation’s highly valuable and sensitive data database has been hacked and threatened to be destroyed or sold unless a ransom is paid.
