'It's a scam': Flood of fake missing child posts on social media prompt warning

You may come across a Facebook post about a missing child or a lost pet – it may tug on your heartstrings and you may be trying to help, but that is exactly what scammers are counting on.

Fake missing person posts are being widely shared on Facebook. It has police and experts warning Manitobans not to fall for it.

"It's a scam. It's a bait-and-switch, essentially," said Janet Reichert, the communications specialist with the Brandon Police Service.

It's an issue she has noticed pop up in Brandon's buy-and-sell Facebook group. The posts show images of children who are supposedly missing. Some say a silver alert has been activated. Every post asks you to share it.

"What these scammers are doing is they are putting out a post that pulls on the heartstrings of people, you know, be it an injured animal or a lost and hurt child," Reichert said. "Because it pulls on the heartstrings, we want to help so we share. And with that, it gets wide spread."

One of these posts in the Brandon Facebook group has been shared more than 26,000 times.

Another post shows the picture of a three-year-old boy who was supposedly found wandering the city.

"Deputy Ryan Braidley saved him and took him to the Police Station but no one has an idea where he lives," the scam reads. "Let's flood our feeds so that this post may reach his family."

The only problem, Reichert said there is no deputy at the Brandon Police Service named Ryan Braidley, and no lost three-year-old boy was ever brought to the station.

"In short, the answer is yes – it is a scam," Reichert told CTV News when asked about the post.

But what do these scammers hope to accomplish with these posts?

David Gerhard, the head of computer science at the University of Manitoba, said the scammers want you to share the post and then forget about it.

After the post gets a few thousand people sharing it, Gerhard said the scammers will come back and change the original post.

"Instead of a missing person, now it's a real estate opportunity or a multi-level marketing scheme… some way to steal money or steal information or to hack an account – that's the scam," he said.

The problem is not all Facebook posts about missing people are scams. Several organizations, like the Bear Clan Patrol, share legitimate missing child posters on Facebook in an effort to help families find their loved ones.

"That's where this becomes insidious," Gerhard said. "Because then people become nervous about sharing these things because they wonder if it's real or not."

So how do you tell if a post is a scam?

Reichert said you need to take a good look before you share anything on Facebook. These scam posts are often shared in public Facebook groups and usually have the comments turned off so no one can call the scammer out in the comment section.

She also suggests checking the profile making the post – is it a new profile? Does it have real Facebook friends? Is it from the area?

Gerhard said real missing person posts should be verifiable by police, have a police report number, or be posted directly by a trusted organization or person. 

Reichert and Gerhard say if you come across a post you suspect to be a scam, report it to Facebook and delete it from your page.