Is a "Homicide Bureau" searching for "Santos Chylice" over "the death of 8-month-old baby Gonzalez Cassandra" in Holly Hill? No, that's not true: Facebook posts calling on readers to be on the lookout for her used the mugshot of someone listed on the internet as being arrested on drug charges. 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.
An example of such a post (archived here) published on March 10, 2025 read:
HOMICIDE SUSPECT ON THE RUN in 📍Holly Hill
A 21-year-old mother has been identified by the Homicide Bureau as a suspect responsible for the death of her own 8-month-old baby Gonzalez Cassandra. The baby's death accured on 7 March, 2025 ,baby Cassandra was a victim of blunt force trauma. Santos Chylice, has been charged with murder and is still at large.Anyone who knows her whereabouts is asked to call the Police.
LETS BUMP THIS POST TO HELP LOCATE HER🙏
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Mar 21 08:59:48 2025 UTC)
The exact kept getting reposted by different Facebook accounts to Holly Hill-related pages on Facebook :
(Image source: collage of screenshots made by Lead Stories on March 21, 2025 at 09:11:11 UTC)
The mugshot in the post previously appeared on arrests.com (archived here) but it listed charges for "Possession Of Cocaine" and "DRUG PARAPHERNALIA-POSSESS AND OR USE". No murder or baby were mentioned.
A Google News search for news articles mentioning "Chylice Santos" and "Gonzalez Cassandra" did not return any results (archived here).
Similar Facebook warnings that have appeared in recent weeks were later edited to show a form for a food drive or some other offer, as can be seen in the edit history of this post (archived here):
(Image source:screenshot made by Lead Stories on March 19, 2025 at 13:27:04 UTC)
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.
