Are people in various communities in the United States and England being warned about an 18-year-old known as Russell Robinson or Dycorrian Wayne Lofton knocking on doors and attacking people after he gains their trust? No, that's not true: Facebook posts calling on readers to be vigilant and lock their doors used mugshots of unrelated people. The posts are part of a common social media scam that tricks people into liking or sharing a Facebook post with an urgent warning that later gets its content replaced with an offer or ad designed to harvest personal and financial information.
One example of the claim appeared in a post (archived here) shared on Facebook on March 14, 2025. It read:
⚠️Warning⚠️ Everyone around #liverpool is being warned to be alert, vigilant and to properly lock your doors. This 18 year old boy known as RUSSELL ROBINSON, is going around knocking on peoples' doors pretending to be homeless ,seeking for help but then he attacks you after gaining your trust 😭💔.
On Friday, he stabbed my neighbor RYAN TYLER (60) and his wife CHLOE TYLER (51) to death. When the authorities arrived, they observed both victims lifeless on the floor. They were pronounced deceased at the scene.
If you see him please call the police and be careful.
LET'S BUMP THIS POST AND HELP WARN OTHERS
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Mar 20 15:35:51 2025 UTC)
The mugshot in the post previously appeared in an article (archived here) in The Sun newspaper's U.S. website on June 12, 2021 where it was described as a photo of Donald Owen Jr., 22, who was convicted of murdering a woman in Indiana, and not as "Russell Robinson," who was knocking on doors and attacking residents in Liverpool, England and in American communities.
An example of a post that "flipped" to a scam survey ad can be seen in the edit history of this post (archived here):
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Mar 20 17:34:37 2025 UTC)
Another example (archived here) used identical wording, but it named the 18-year-old alleged killer of Ryan Tyler and Chloe Tyler as Dycorrian Wayne Lofton. This post used a mugshot of a man that a Patch.com article (archived here) reported was charged with robbing an Illinois convenience store in February 2025.
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Mar 20 17:23:31 2025 UTC)
Survey Scam Posts
Survey scam posts are 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 survey ad to harvest personal information from users. The wording and images of these eye-catching posts typically seen on local Facebook "yard sale" pages" are frequently identical, even when the offered property is 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.
Some links purport to connect people to a U.S. Housing and Urban Development site to help them search for deals on foreclosed homes. Lead Stories found these links lead to sites that carry disclosures at the bottom of the page that note they are "not affiliated with, endorsed, authorized, or approved by the Federal Government or the US Department of Housing and Urban Development."
Read more
Other Lead Stories fact checks related to such bait-and-switch scams are found here.
