Kidnappings Increased 60 Percent Between 2020 and 2025, Analysis Says

In an increasingly volatile and economically unstable world, criminals are frequently turning to kidnapping and ransom (K&R) to make a quick buck. The number of kidnaps has risen steadily in the past five years, according to a report from Control Risks released today. Recorded kidnappings in 2025 were 60 percent higher than in 2020, with increases in every region of the world except Asia Pacific.

K&R cases suffer from significant underreporting, though, so the actual number of cases is likely much higher.

Kidnappers’ tactics are also diversifying as the perpetrators adapt to economic and security conditions.

“Worsening socio-economic inequality has created increased opportunities for criminal actors to use kidnapping for financial gain, and in several countries has created a subset of highly visible targets for potential perpetrators,” Michael Barty, associate director of kidnap, extortion, and threat response for Control Risks and the author of the report, tells Security Management via email. “For example, in South Africa, many of the small business owners who represent the most common victims of kidnap for ransom live and work in areas in the immediate vicinity of districts most heavily affected by kidnap groups. Equally, where domestic or international conflicts have forced populations to flee their homes with their belongings, criminals have often preyed on these vulnerable groups for extortion or kidnapping.”

Countries and regions with lower per-capita wealth—especially ones embroiled in civil conflicts—have seen an increase in mass kidnaps, where five or more victims are taken in one incident and held for a collective ransom. Control Risks’ data found that the recorded number of mass kidnaps globally increased by 154 percent in 2025 compared to 2020. Nigeria is a notable hotspot.

According to Senior Africa Analyst Dr. Ladd Serwat at conflict monitor ACLED, large-scale kidnappings in Nigeria are spreading—in the northwest region of the country, ACLED recorded more than 400 kidnappings in the first six months of 2026, but the trend is starting to spread into southwest states.

“The spillover effect mimics the devastating consequences on education seen elsewhere, notably in the English-speaking regions of neighboring Cameroon,” Serwat wrote. “When schools become targets of armed groups for political and economic gain, the damage extends far beyond the immediate victims. It forces mass displacement, pressures families to keep children out of school, and erodes public confidence in the state’s ability to provide basic security.”

Kidnappers are also boldly emptying victims’ bank accounts through mobile banking apps before demanding a ransom from an outside party—doubling their opportunities for a payout. Some have even become “increasingly willing to renege on agreed ransom settlements, taking the first payment and then issuing a second demand while still holding the victim,” Control Risks said.

These findings echo the personal experience of security executive Ricardo Flores, CPP, who was kidnapped in Mexico, held for ransom, and robbed through his mobile bank account. The kidnappers also exhausted all his available lines of credit, making swift purchases through online sales portals with his financial information, he explained in an article earlier this year for Security Management.

Barty adds, “Kidnappers have exploited the emergence of mobile banking apps and other forms of digital wealth to both extort victims at the point of abduction and identify new targets. Express kidnapping, which historically relied on gangs using victim's bank cards to withdraw from ATMs, increasingly features them keeping the victim inside a vehicle and emptying their mobile bank account instead—this not only makes it harder for the victim to escape, but limits the potential for witnesses or police involvement. In a more traditional kidnap-for-ransom, gangs will also often clear out victim’s bank accounts through their mobile apps before then issuing a ransom demand to an outside party.”

Kidnappers are also taking advantage of the rise of cryptocurrency, Control Risks found. In typically lower-risk countries, especially France, the significant sums available in individuals’ crypto wallets has prompted criminals to kidnap individuals and extort substantial payments out of them. These wrench attacks are targeted, with criminals reviewing social media and online information to identify potential victims with a high reward-to-risk profile, Security Management reported in 2025.

“Employees across high-risk areas for K&R will increasingly need to be aware of the kidnap threat in areas they operate in, including developments in kidnapper's tactics and targeting patterns,” Barty says. “Measures that may have historically deterred kidnap groups, such as security escorts, are not necessarily as effective as they once were, and so maintaining awareness of one’s own routines, visibility, and visual profile is key to limit the risk of attracting attention from kidnap groups. Similarly, travelers will also need to be as well-informed as possible towards potential kidnap threats, including other types such as express kidnapping or virtual kidnap.”

Control Risks also found that businesses face a continually escalating threat from extortionists—both transnational organized crime groups and lower-level opportunists. In Latin America, transnational crime groups like Tren de Aragua are consolidating ties with local groups and diversifying their business lines, including boosting extortion efforts and turning to kidnapping to enforce demands.

“In lower-risk environments, businesses continue to face threat extortions from opportunistic criminals,” the report said. “These perpetrators will continue to leverage the anonymity provided by remote communication and rely on (often falsified) threats of holding compromising information on organizations or senior leadership to extort a payment. The advent of generative AI will increasingly bolster these threat actors by allowing them to tailor messaging and generate ‘proof’ of their extortion claims to increase the credibility of their threats.”

Control Risks is also seeing a rise in threats of violence associated with personal or collective grievances. The number of behavioral threat cases Control Risks responded to globally in 2025 exceeded the 2020 total by 566 percent.

Perceived anonymity and the ease of online access lowered barriers for conveying threats, the report said.

“The attention of businesses has understandably been focused on more macro-level issues, such as impact on supply chains, regulatory concerns, and so on,” Barty says. “However, as geopolitical conditions have changed, the extortion, kidnap, and threat landscape has changed with it. Individuals with grievances against specific companies have become significantly more willing to threaten the C-suite, leveraging targets’ online visibility to increase the credibility of their threats. Extortion actors have found new ways to target commercial operators, whether directly or through their third-party suppliers and contractors. Non-state armed groups, criminal gangs, and a range of other perpetrators have all exploited kidnapping in differing ways to adapt to the security environment they operate in, including in what were historically more benign environments.

“All of this has created a significantly more complex picture for security executives, alongside all the other risks they face on a day-to-day basis.”