A woman has been arrested after she sent three fake video messages to her mother claiming she had been kidnapped.

Jessica Johnston, 22, from South Carolina, sent the videos of her sobbing with her hands bound and duct tape over her mouth.

Her distraught mother, Chrissie Pruitt Johnston, alerted police who tracked her down to a motel where she was found slumped on a bed and unresponsive.

But police became suspicious and after questioning Johnston admitted she had staged the kidnap.

In a post on Facebook, Ms Pruitt Johnston said her daughter is a "sick person", adding: "This isn't the person I raised."

She said: "How can you be so evil as to send this video and others to people who care about you?

Lieutenant Timmie Williams told CBS News: "During the investigation there was different clues that actually sparked the investigators' curiosity."

Johnston, who has a drug addiction according to her mother, told officers she was going through "personal issues".

She has been held in custody charged with filing a false police report.