Does a Facebook post alert users to an authentic "Homicide Bureau" fugitive case identifying 'Justin Scott' and 'Carla Howell' as suspects in the death of a 10-month-old named 'Emily Darnell'? No, that's not true: Facebook posts calling on readers to be on the lookout for violent fugitives are part of a common social media scam that tricks people into liking or sharing a Facebook post with an urgent warning. That warning post is then replaced with an offer or ad designed to harvest personal information.
The fake warning appeared in posts like this March 27, 2025 Facebook post (archived here) published on the Suffolk County (New York) Events page under the title "HOMICIDE SUSPECTS ON THE RUN in Suffolk county". It continued:
The Homicide Bureau has identified 26-year-old Justin Scott and 23-year-old Carla Howell, as suspects in the death of 10-month-old Emily Darnell. The baby died on Friday 3/7, due to penetrating, blunt, and deceleration trauma. The suspects face murder charges and are currently evading capture. The Police urge anyone with information on their whereabouts to come forward.
LETS BUMP THIS POST TO HELP FIND THEM
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Mar 27 20:54:05 2025 UTC)
There is no "Homicide Bureau" in the Suffolk County, NY Sheriff's Office, according to its website, only the the Enforcement Bureau, the Headquarters Bureau, the District Court Bureau, the Family Court Bureau (Warrant Squad and the Domestic Violence Unit), the Criminal Investigation Bureau and The Special Operations Bureau (archived here).
The exact same content kept getting reposted by different Facebook accounts to pages for towns more than 2,000 miles apart:
(Image source: Collage of Facebook.com screenshots made by Lead Stories, with geographic information enlarged in red callout boxes.)
Lead Stories conducted a reverse image search (archived here) on Google, which only turned up photos of people with face tattoos, not police bulletins showing the faces used in the Facebook post.
Similarly, the Google News index of thousands of credible websites found no entries in response to a query for articles using "Justin Scott" AND "Carla Howell" AND "Emily Darnell" (archived here).
Similar Facebook warnings that have appeared in recent weeks were later edited to show a form for a food drive or coupon offer, as can be seen in the edit history of this post (archived here):
(Image source:Facebook.com screenshot made by Lead Stories)
Bait & switch scam posts
Posts like these are typical of a type of social media scam known as "bait & switch scam posts", a tactic used on Facebook by spammers that employ "bait and switch" content to lure people into a scam. Scammers will pair an alarming or heart-wrenching claim with a compelling image to catch people's attention -- missing children or aging adults, injured animals, injured people in hospital beds and sex trafficking tactics -- and drive engagement.
Once a post has gathered sufficient attention, the scammer replaces the bait, switching to a deceptive ad or offer designed to harvest personal information from users interested in the too-good-to-be-true offer. The wording and images of these eye-catching posts, typically seen on local Facebook "yard sale" pages," are frequently identical, even when the ad is for goods or services located in different cities, regions of the U.S., or countries.
The content switch is clearly documented by a post's edit history, which also notes additions or deletions of content. To access the edit history of a Facebook post, click the three dots in the top right corner and select "View edit history" from the menu.
Commonly, such posts use links that lead to landing pages with disclaimers or false promises and contact information requests used to gather personal data, including financial information.
Read more
Other Lead Stories fact checks related to such bait-and-switch scams are found here.
