Was a little boy, approximately 2 or 3 years old, found unattended in several locations, and is he now being cared for at a police station? No, that's not true: The posts circulating on social media are not based on a real, ongoing incident. The deceptive posts use the same photos and captions, but change the name of the town where the child was purportedly found to make the situation seem relevant to residents in that area. The plea to "bump this post" is a ruse to trick people to share a post that will later be edited to become a scam advertisement for real estate.
The post (archived here) was posted in the group Hill Country Crossroads of Texas Buy & Sell on September 28, 2024, by a Facebook page named Laizah Anna. It was captioned:
This little boy, approximately 2 years old, was found in Hill County 1hour ago. Officers have the child safe at the Police Station but we have no idea where he lives. No one has called looking for him.Please Bump this post .
This is what the post looked like on Facebook when Lead Stories began writing this article (below left). However, before long it had changed into a fake real estate ad (below right):
(Source: Composite image with Facebook screenshots taken on Tue Oct 1 13:16:24 2024 UTC and Tue Oct 1 18:46:47 2024 UTC)
This bait-and-switch scam formula has been circulating on Facebook since 2022. A wide variety of fake narratives are employed to catch people's interest. Although the subject may change from a lost dog to a dangerous criminal on the loose or a noxious weed that might cause a rash, there are clues these posts are not authentic. Topping the list is the suspicious detail that the comments on the post have been turned off (pictured above). If this were an authentic effort to mobilize a community to discover this child's identity, the post comments would be where that conversation would happen. Comments have been turned off to prevent those who know it's a scam from warning others.
A reverse image search (archived here) for the photo of this child did not turn up any current or old news stories, only duplicate copies of this deceptive post dating as far back as August 6, 2024.
The page Laizah Anna is designed to look like a personal Facebook profile, but it is not one. The Facebook page has no posts, the photo of the woman is a stock photo (archived here), and the only activity on the page comes from people writing negative reviews (archived here) warning of the scam (pictured below).
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Oct 1 14:26:22 2024 UTC)
Eventually, after the post has been shared by people in the group, it will be edited to become something else. The edit history of a Facebook post can be found by clicking the three dots in the upper right corner of the post. The composite image below shows the edit history of another version of this same post (archived here) that was posted in a Facebook group based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, One Man's Junk Spartanburg. The edit history does not show the original images from the post, but notes that they are no longer displayed. The caption with the found boy narrative has been changed to a fake ad for a house for rent. It reads:
Available for RentPrice:$7153 bedrooms & 2 bathsCute and clean house ready to go.Recent updates in the kitchen and bath.Newer floors.Direct access garage.Big backyard.Excellent location.There's no requirement for a down payment credit check.Section 8 is accepted & we are pet-friendly.Contact us today to schedule a showing: https://cutt.ly/GeIALshP
(Source: Lead Stories composite image with Facebook screenshots taken on Tue Oct 01 16:25:01 2024 UTC)
The house pictured in this ad is not for rent and is not in Spartanburg. According to the Coldwell Banker listing (archived here) that Lead Stories identified with a reverse image search, the home pictured is in Florissant, Missouri, with a sale pending.
The home rental ad is a secondary ruse used to get people to click the shortened URL in the ad -- https://cutt.ly/GeIALshP. That link redirects to a GoDaddy site -- buildingamericatogether.godaddysites.com. The homepage of this website displays the seal of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development but they are not affiliated with the federal agency. The information at the bottom of the page says only "Copyright © 2024 American Group - All Rights Reserved." The only working link on this landing page is the "search homes" button -- redirecting to www.chesy.site, which redirects to one more website -- rentownclub.com. On the terms of use page of rentownclub.com they state:
This Site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, authorized by, or associated in any way with any government (whether federal or state), government agency, military, or country. The Site and Content have been prepared for general information purposes only. By using this Site, you expressly agree that any such use is solely for personal, non-commercial use. The Site provides links to other websites and access to content, products and services of third parties, including without limitation, Company's third party advertisers, affiliates and strategic partners ('Third Party Sites').
Before being able to browse the purportedly available homes, the user is prompted to fill out a form where their information is harvested. 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.
(Source: rentownclub.com screenshot taken on Tue Oct 01 17:31:03 2024 UTC)
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on this bait-and-switch scam can be found here.
