Have authorities in various towns and counties in the U.S. found a lost "little boy," approximately 2 years old, whose place of residence is unknown, as a post on Facebook claimed? No, that's not true: This post, and others like it, are part of a known deception to trick people into sharing content. In this scam, a shared claim will later be changed to an ad to solicit social media users into giving up their personal information.
A version of the claim was shared in a post on Facebook on October 8, 2024, (archived here). It read:
This little boy, approximately 2 years old, was found an 1hour ago in Macomb County
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 how the post looked at the time of the writing of this fact check:
(Source: Facebook screengrab taken Tues Oct 8 19:33:56 2024 UTC)
There are key indications that the above post is what's known as a bait-and-switch scam. Though the identity of the child in the photo could not be verified, a Facebook keyword search, using phrases from the post caption, returned at least seven similar posts with different U.S. locations, including in Sharman, Texas; Brunswick, Maine; and Buffalo, New York. The search results can be seen below.
The post presented no evidence that the story of the lost toddler is real. Using vague descriptions, it stated only that unnamed "officers" had the child at an undisclosed "police station." However, the supposed location of each post is different.
For example:
(Source: Lead Stories compilation taken Tues Oct 8 21:17:53 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories could not find the original photo in searches of Google Lens (archived here), Tineye (archived here), Yandex (archived here) or Bing (archived here).
Another version of the post was shared in a similar community group on October 5, 2024 (archived here). The following day, the post was "flipped" to a real-estate ad. This is determined by viewing a post's edit history, which can be found by clicking the three dots at the top right of the post.
The edit history for that post showed that two attachments were removed after the post was made, and four were added.
The creator changed the post text on October 6, 2024, to read:
Rent to Own Home
$885/Month
3-bedrooms, 2-Bath rooms, Recently painted house with new appliances and upgrades! ready for a new owner.
-Located near shopping center
-Parking Space Available!
- All Pets allowed
For more information kindly visit >>> https://cutt.ly/AePgJAd2
and fill in the application to set an appointment!
The edit history opened as a pop-up window, displayed below, showing when and how the post changed.
(Source: Facebook screengrab taken Tues Oct 8 19:37:12 2024 UTC)
The link that appeared in the caption of the "flipped" post led to a website (archived here) that claims to offer "unique and affordable properties" to help people purchase a home.
Bait-and-switch scheme
In a bait-and-switch scheme, social media users post eye-grabbing content to get other users to share a post with their followers. After the post is shared, the scammer changes the original post to a deceptive ad, often for home rentals, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) (archived here), a nonprofit business watchdog, warns. The BBB adds:
This scheme has many variations, but the commonality is the emotionality or urgency of the message that encourages concerned people to share the news with their friends ...
These posts are shared in local buy-and-sell groups because there is already a sense of community and trust within these crowds, and people may not realize that scammers are targeting members. Scammers sometimes also turn comments off on the posts so other group members can't oust them.
Once a post has shares and engagement, the scammer will flip the post -- that is, update the post to be about something completely different, usually a house or apartment for rent. Hence, the name "bait and switch."
Many of these scam posts will have the comments turned off and will hashtag various cities or locations. The post about the "missing" dad does not contain a call to action, contact information for area law enforcement or the family of the missing, or any other information that tells users what to do next if that person is found.
As Lead Stories previously reported, bait-and-switch posts commonly use links that lead to landing pages with disclaimers or false promises and request contact information that can be used to gather personal data, including financial information.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about bait-and-switch scams can be found here.
