WACO, Texas (KXXV) — There has been a rise of fake missing persons post in local community Facebook groups. The posts use emotional tactics and targets vulnerability to get clicks, shares and likes.
- Waco PD say the department relies on their Facebook page to get information out to the public
- If a person is actually missing, it should be posted on police departments Facebook page
- If you’re still not sure if a missing persons post is real or not, you can give them a call on the non emergency line
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"Every day, if I'm on social media there is always at least one or two in my feed," Axtell resident Megan Lee said.
Axtell mother Megan Lee says she's frustrated with the amount of scam posts she's seeing on local community Facebook pages.
"It tugs on their heart strings and everyone is sympathetic because if that was my baby, I would want people sharing those posts and helping to try and find my baby."
Last week she posted a graphic in the "Whats Up Waco" Facebook page, trying to raise awareness about fake missing persons posts that have started popping up.
"I watched this post where it was an autistic child that was missing and it got hundreds of shares — the next day it was a house for rent or sale."
Detective Johnson with Waco PD says the amount of fake missing persons post have increased in the area.
His advice — be suspicious of what you see online and go straight to the source for information
"We live in a digital age, this is not the 90s or early 2000s, most things we do are online — most people when they wake up in the morning scroll through social media to see what's going on," Johnson said.
"Just like in the real world, we need to be vigilant to our surroundings and people may want to take advantage of us or do harm to us because they can do the same thing online — our online life is kind of blurring with our real life."
Megan says there are ither fake Facebook posts she's seen on different pages.
"A lot of free food, free items are going around a lot because they know things are getting hard and people can't manage now, so they're trying to hit all those vulnerable points, missing people free food, free items."
