Did a series of Facebook posts in late March and early April 2025 offer genuine concern over an unidentified woman supposedly found "heavily stabbed" in a black Audi A7, in 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. Photos presented as being linked to the woman actually stemmed from real-life cases in Los Angeles in 2024 and Florida in 2025.
The scam proceeded in two stages. First, the creator posted a message purporting to be from a member of the community, requesting help in identifying the woman. It contained the following text, as shown in this February 18, 2025, post (archived here):
URGENT ‼️
#Jefferson Residents we need urgent assistance in identifying this woman found last night heavily stabbed multiple times and dumped in her Black Audi A7 sedan by the canal. She's in critical condition and missing her ID's/ Drivers Licence, No phone, No nothing 😢😢 Let's flood our feeds so that this post reaches her family. Thank you
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 February 19, 2025, version (archived here) of the scam changed the supposed location to Hawaii, 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 February 18, 2025, post (archived here) targeting users in Hendersonville, North Caroline began as a "heavily stabbed woman" warning:
However, after garnering shares and engagement, its creator then updated its content, completely replacing the message about the woman in the Audi A7 with an affiliate marketing promotion, as shown below:
(Source: Facebook screenshot)
And this is what the post looked like once the content switch was complete:
(Source: Facebook screenshot)
The scam posts used two photographs, neither of them related to any case in which a woman was found heavily stabbed in an Audi A7.
The photo of the car surrounded by first responders was taken from the February 2025 discovery of the body of a West Palm Beach, Florida women in a submerged vehicle.
The photo of a hospitalized woman was taken from the case of an unidentified woman brought to the attention of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services in June 2024.
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For more Lead Stories fact checks on bait-and-switch scams, click here.
