Were posts on Facebook about an "approximately 3 year old" toddler an authentic try to find the boy's parents? No, that's not true: Those posts were a version of an already debunked bait-and-switch scheme involving scam real-estate ads. The scam targets people with low incomes and tricks them into disclosing sensitive personal information.
The ruse resurfaced in a post (archived here) on Facebook on September 1, 2024. It read:
AVAILABLE FOR RENT TO OWN!ISO: A family can rent to own this 3 beds, 1.5 baths, 1,510 sq ft house for $570/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!
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Sep 2 18:19:35 2024 UTC)
The edit history of this post showed that the content was flipped. Three dots in the upper right corner of a Facebook post open a menu for a social media user to view its "edit history." The edit history opens as a pop-up window, displayed in the image below, showing if the post has changed and when. Initially, the poster was calling for attention to the case of a 3-year-old boy found by "Deputy Ryan Braidley."
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Sep 2 18:22:46 2024 UTC)
The same ruse populated social media back in midsummer 2024. As Lead Stories wrote at the time, it was a scam aimed at tricking people into giving away their personal information.
The newer variation of the claim utilized identical language but used different images of first, the supposedly found boy, and then the properties people allegedly could acquire through some "rent-to-own" scheme.
As a textual search across Google for the keywords seen here (archived here) showed, announcements about the "3-year-old boy" in different locations were accompanied by a different image of a toddler.
A reverse image search revealed that the photo of the purportedly available home was taken from a listing on Zillow (archived here). But that property had been removed from the market in June 2024 and, as of this writing, was still unavailable for purchase. The old listing said nothing about the alleged "rent-to-own" path to homeownership.
The link in the flipped version of the post led to a website previously promoted by another series of fake missing child posters, as Lead Stories already wrote.
That website, in turn, contained another link to another website whose Terms of Use section (archived here) contained a disclaimer:
RTOAUTHORITY.COM'S LIABILITY, IF ANY, SHALL BE LIMITED TO DIRECT AND FORESEEABLE DAMAGES, WHICH SHALL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT PROVIDED BELOW. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL RTOAUTHORITY.COM BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, STATUTORY, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES SUCH AS, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF REVENUE OR ANTICIPATED PROFITS OR LOST BUSINESS, LOSS OF OR DAMAGE TO DATA, OR EMOTIONAL DISTRESS NOTWITHSTANDING ANY OTHER PROVISION OF THIS AGREEMENT, IN NO EVENT SHALL RTOAUTHORITY.COM'S TOTAL LIABILITY EXCEED U.S. $100.00. THESE LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS APPLY EVEN IF THIS REMEDY DOES NOT FULLY COMPENSATE YOU FOR ANY LOSSES OR FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE OR IF WE KNEW OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF THE DAMAGES. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THESE LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS APPLY TO ANY CLAIMS RELATED TO THIS AGREEMENT OR TO THE SERVICES.
It is not the first time "RTO Authority" has been promoted via the links shared in flipped posts that lead to it through other resources. Back in February 2023, that happened through viral posts about allegedly missing teenager "Brandon Smith," as spotted by Lead Stories.
"RTO Authority" is not a federal agency: Government agencies don't operate on .com domains -- their names end with .gov.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about bait & switch posts on social media can be found here.
