Police advise residents to verify posts before sharing on social media

Lethbridge Police are advising the public to scrutinize social media posts and always verify the information before sharing.

Police have noted an influx of hoax posts, primarily on Facebook, that involve missing children, wandering seniors, children found with no identification or injured pets. The posts include photos intended to elicit an emotional response, indicate the event occurred in #lethbridge and ask people to share or “bump” the post to help spread the word in the hopes of a successful resolution. In most cases comments are turned off, there is no contact information and the only request is to share the post.

The scam involves a bait-and-switch tactic. As the original post is shared by more and more people, its reach increases and the original poster then changes the content to a phony prize give away, too-good-to-be-true rental opportunity or multi-level marketing scam. Everyone who unsuspectingly shared the original missing person, wandering senor or injured pet post, now has the new post on their feed which usually features links to a nefarious website. When friends see the amended post, scammers are counting on the fact they may be more inclined to believe it’s legitimate and let down their guard because it was shared by someone they trust.

“Scammers prey on good intentions and the desire to help,” said Sgt. Kevin Talbot, with the Economic Crimes Unit. “It’s critical, with so much false information circulating online, that everyone exercises a little bit of due diligence and verifies the contents of a post before sharing it.”

Police are also frequently seeing phishing scams involving posts advertising free food. In these cases, the posts feature images of boxes full of meat, produce and other goods and ask people to join a private group to get the location of the event or register to receive food. Upon clicking the link and joining the group, scammers have the opportunity to collect personal information. 

The bait and switch and free food posts are being widely shared on Lethbridge buy and sell and other public Facebook groups.

It’s important to recognize red flags and take steps to verify information. 

• Research before you share! Read the information carefully and look at the profile of the person who created the original post. Is the profile new, have they shared the same or similar posts in other groups or shared the same post but referenced other cities?
• Bait and switch posts often originate in public groups (swap and buy, buy and sell, etc.), usually have their comments turned off, reference #lethbridge but do not provide any contact details to report information to the police or other officials.
• Check for similar posts. Copy and paste the text from the post into Facebook’s search tool to see if other posts with the same text and same (or different) photos show up.
• Take a close look at the photo. Often images used are not consistent with Lethbridge – e.g. there are palm trees, American flags and other indicators to suggest they aren’t really local.
• Do a reverse image search to see if the pictures used in the post have also been used on other websites or platforms.
• Do not click on any links, join unverified groups or provide personal information.
• If you recognize a post is a scam report it to Facebook and/or the group page admins for removal.
• Consider not sharing missing person, wandering senior, found child, etc. posts unless they come from an official source such as LPS, RCMP, etc. Go directly to the agency’s social media page or website to confirm or message the agency directly to inquire. Legitimate posts where police are seeking the public’s assistance will have contact details to report information and often reference case file numbers.