Did a girl named "Nora" go missing after she left for school, and will it help to find her if the local community shares a post on social media? No, that's not true: Posts like these are part of a scam that starts with an appeal to urgently share a post, which the spammers will edit later to become something else. The same post is often circulating under the names of many different towns.
One example of this scam appeared in a post (archived here) on August 7, 2024, by a Facebook page named Julia Anderson in the group "moms on a budget perth amboy nj." The post was captioned:
📍Perth Amboy
These are the most recent pictures of my daughter Nora who left yesterday morning for school but never came back🥹🥹. Unfortunately, there is still no sign of her. We are asking for the community's help...IT ONLY TAKES TWO SECONDS TO SHARE
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Aug 13 15:15:15 2024 UTC)
At the bottom of the post is a notification that Julia Anderson turned off commenting for this post (pictured above). This is a common tactic seen with this spamming method, which has been observed on Facebook since 2022. Turning off the commenting prevents group members from warning others that this post is a scam. If this were a true missing child situation, an Amber Alert might be issued, and at the very least contact information for local law enforcement would be offered.
A reverse image search for the photos of the child do not return any results about a real missing child case. This fake missing child story will be used to spread spam posts through communities after it has been shared. An example of how this happens can be seen in an August 8, 2024, post (archived here) by a Facebook page called Louis Grey in the "Fresno CA Rental Properties" group. The post, shared over 1,500 times, has four photos of a modest home, one exterior view and three interior pictures. The commenting has been turned off. The caption of this ad reads:
AVAILABLE FOR RENT TO OWN!
ISO: A family can rent to own this 3 beds, 1.5 baths, 1,510 sq ft house for $590/month. Newly renovated home, ready to move in. Stainless steel appliances, newer floors, updated bathrooms and kitchen.There is no deposit required, and all pets are welcome! Section 8 is accepted! Please visit >>> https://shorturl.at/G19mo
And fill a short form and set up an appointment , For more details and location.
https://shorturl.at/G19mo
A reverse image search for the photo in the false ad reveals that this home is not in Fresno, California, and several details in the ad are too good to be true. The home's actual listing on hotpads.com shows that the 936-square-foot property had been advertised for $1,000 a month rent in Decatur, Alabama -- it was taken off the market on June 27, 2024.
In the upper right corner of a Facebook post are three dots that will open a menu for "View edit history." The edit history will open as a pop-up window (pictured below) that shows if the post has changed and when. Although the original photos of the purportedly missing child Nora are not visible, the history shows that about six hours after the post was made, two attachments were removed and four were added. The post's original caption (circled in red) is the same caption as the Perth Amboy post about Nora; only the location, Fresno, is different.
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Aug 13 18:27:38 2024 UTC)
The purpose of this post is clearly not to rent the home -- the property as listed does not exist. The ad carried with it a shortened link, https://shorturl.at/G19mo, which redirects to assistingcommunitiez.jimdosite.com. In an unlikely coincidence, the front page of that website (pictured below) features the photo of the Decatur, Alabama, rental. When a visitor to the site clicks to "See Listings," they are redirected to foreclosurerealtygroup.com where a series of questions must be answered to proceed. The questions begin by asking what type of home the person is looking for and finish with questions that harvest their personal information.
(Source: screenshot of assistingcommunitiez.jimdosite.com taken on Tue Aug 13 18:52:31 2024 UTC)
The terms of use page on foreclosurerealtygroup.com lists 531 Main St. #112. El Segundo, CA 90245-3060 as their address -- this is a Mailbox rental store. A business search for "Foreclosure Realty Group" on the website of the California Secretary of State returns no results (pictured below).
(Source: bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov/search/business screenshot taken on Tue Aug 13 19:06:43 2024 UTC)
An August 10, 2023, blog post by a California realtor, Steve Heard, is titled, "I Fell for an Online Rent-to-Own Scam (so you don't have to)." In the article Heard explains the red flags he encountered and how his experiment giving a fake name and email to one of these rent-to-own scam sites resulted in hundreds of spam robocalls and emails.
Since 2022 Lead Stories has debunked a wide variety of false narratives used in this bait and switch scam -- they can be found here.
