Did a series of Facebook posts in late March 2025 offer genuine concern over Blasia Lackey, a teenager supposedly missing from various locations in the United States? No, that's not true: Such posts were examples of a known "bait-and-switch" scam, which garnered well-meaning shares of the original post before flipping its content to boost dubious real estate and marketing promotions. A woman from Oneida, Tennessee named Blasia Lackey was reported missing in November 2024 before being found safe.
The scam proceeded in two stages. First, the creator posted a message purporting to be from Lackey's parent, requesting help in tracing her whereabouts. It contained the following text, as shown in this March 27, 2025 post (archived here):
My daughter has been missing sinc last night (March 26rd 2025)🥹 It only takes two seconds to share!
#williamsburg
Her name is: Blasia Lackey
Age:15
Height: 5'3
Weight: 115
EDIT: YES we've called the cops. YES we've checked her friends houses.
If there are any updates I WILL update yall, so plz stop messaging me and asking for an update.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot)
The location specified in each post varied. For example, a March 26, 2025, version (archived here) of the scam changed the supposed location to Jefferson County, Missouri, as follows:
(Source: Facebook screenshot)
After garnering many shares among well-meaning Facebook users, the creator then moved to the second stage of the scam, which was to convert the content of the post to one of various dubious promotions, often involving real estate offers.
For example, a March 27, 2025, post (archived here) targeting users in Etowah County, Alabama began as a "Blasia Lackey" missing persons warning:
However, after garnering shares and engagement, its creator then updated its content, completely replacing the message about Blasia Lackey with a real estate promotion, as shown below:
(Source: Facebook screenshot)
And this is what the post looked like once the content switch was complete:
(Source: Facebook screenshot)
In November 2024, a real person named Blasia Lackey was reported missing from Oneida, Tennessee, but was later found safe:
In a March 22, 2025, Facebook post in response to the widespread bait-and-switch scams, Lackey pointed out that she was 21 years old, not a teenager, and said people had been stealing her photos and "posting them everywhere saying I'm [their] 15 year old daughter."
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