Many Facebook groups, locally, nationally, and internationally, are being targeted by scammers who are attempting to pull at heart strings by creating missing children posts and asking for the made-up information be shared.
These posts are aimed to gather personal information through external links or by changing the content of the post after it has been widely shared. They initially contain an image of a child, along with a made-up story of the child being missing or in danger. Usually, these posts have comments turned off so that the creators of the posts can’t be called out.
Admins from two local Facebook groups have shared that this type of post was initially approved due to what seemed like time-sensitive information. After the posts were shared by hundreds or thousands of people, they were changed to contain other false information (sale of items that didn’t exist, links to fraudulent websites, etc.).
These posts are usually made by profiles that are either blank once you click on them or have a group of fellow fake profiles as friends, leaving comments and reacting to their other posts. One way to confirm the authenticity of a missing person is to check with the law enforcement agency that originally sends out press releases asking for the public’s assistance.