This year has been one of the most storied years for crimes committed by the Mexican drug cartels. In addition to the recent raids on the Los Angeles Fashion District that uncovered millions of dollars in drug trafficking funds, 2014's kidnapping rate is rapidly surpassing last year's total of 1,698 from 2013. The cartel is also making use of social media to proliferate their claims of abductions to potential victims in a way that simple phone calls cannot. The practice is becoming known as virtual kidnapping.

Virtual kidnapping is an interesting new case in that a victim is never actually abducted, but the criminal instead fakes the hostage situation through phone calls, social media information and even recordings of the child's voice obtained online. With all of this information at their disposal it becomes easy for the criminal to convince parents that they must wire the would-be kidnappers money in order to retrieve their child who was never stolen in the first place.

Everyone from normal citizens to even former Mexican President Felipe Calderon in 2007 can be a victim of these crimes.

Mexico City's Police for the Prevention of Cybercrimes issued an alert in July: the popular communication application WhatsApp is being used for extortions more than ever. The department also outlined recommendations for residents to protect themselves, including keeping mobile numbers off of social media and keeping their profiles private.

It is actually surprisingly simple to carry out a virtual kidnapping through WhatsApp. Phone numbers are very often on display though open profiles on Facebook, which also allows them to research the potential victim. Friends, family and photos are thoroughly looked through by criminals to ascertain who would make an easy target for ransom.

The old-fashioned crime of stalking victims on the street before carrying out these crimes is rapidly becoming obsolete; all of the necessary tools to virtually kidnap someone are online an at most people's disposal, provided they know where to look.

Anonymity is one of the biggest luxuries afforded through sites like Facebook and Twiter, and that is something that criminals can easily exploit.

It is easy to see the impact that social media as whole has made on the way that society communicates. However, it is also clear that criminals have managed to exploit them as a means to digitally do what they used to do in person.