Scam Alert for those sad posts of injured pets and lost kids

July 25, 2024 Shannon Lukens

By Shannon Lukens. Missing dogs, injured pets, lost kids. Google it first before you share it on Social Media. It is likely a scam.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser spoke at Steamboat Art Museum Wednesday evening.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is in Northwest Colorado meeting with different groups and officials. One thing he wants to warn all about is scams going around right now, and to stay vigilant.

“My message to consumers as your attorney general is constant vigilance. If you get an email and it says your flight was delayed because of the Crowd Strike, do not respond. Any email, any phone call, any text, it can easily be a scam. Take care and be sure you’re hearing from the right party.”

But that’s not all.

Many of these scams are through social media. One that is especially prevalent is the sick or injured animal scam, typically posted on a garage sale Facebook page. The person posting pleads for help in finding an owner of the pet, or sometimes it is a child. The scam ends with “Please help bump this post she can be reunited with the owner.”

Every time.

Then what happens is the bait and switch after thousands and sometimes millions have shared the post. The person posting it changes the content of the post to an ad with a malicious link. It can cause problems with your computer or you can get scammed for money.

Don’t fall for it.

Also look at the profile of the person posting it. Many of the profiles are fake. They have no friends. The only content on their page is scams and shares. And when they make the post, they typically disable the comments.

Don’t get guilted into sharing unverified information from someone you don’t know.

Some scam posts have links and if you click on it, your computer is infected with a malware virus. The latest is about Gracie Mae Thompson. It’s a scam that infects your computer with Malware.

The Better Business Bureau issued a warning about these local “buy-and-sell” groups and how “sharing a certain kind of attention-grabbing post might put their friends at risk of falling victim to a scam.” The article says the post is always “gut-wrenching” about an injured or lost pet and it grabs your attention.

BBB offers these tips to avoid being scammed by a bait-and-switch Facebook ad:

Do a bit of digging before resharing a post on your profile. Read the information carefully and look at the profile of the person who created and shared the original post. If the profile is from Florida but shared the post in a Canadian group, it may be a red flag of a bait-and-switch publication.
Find out when the poster created the Facebook profile. Scammers always create profiles when their old one gets banned. If you click on their profile, it will tell you how long they have been a member of the group. You can also find additional information on their public profile.
You should see it in the news. If a child goes missing or a tragedy occurs, you’ll most likely see it on different news outlets or shared by law enforcement, not on a random post.
Do a reverse image search on Google. That will allow you to find out if the pictures you saw were used on other ads or websites in different cities.
Find 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 different pictures show up.
If you suspect a post is a scam, report it to Facebook.

Here is a list of more articles on this.

FBI — FBI Tech Tuesday: Beware of Lost Pet Scams
Better Business Bureau — BBB Scam Alert: Facebook scams in local buy-and-sell groups are on the rise
CBS News — Scammers target animal lovers with injured dog posts
Detroit Free Press — Sharing Facebook post about lost pet could put you, friends at risk of scam
Penn Live Patriot-News — ‘Bump this post’ scammers infiltrate Facebook with heartbreaking photos

Other Scams we’ve reported on for Steamboat Radio News

May 30, 2024 — SHERIFF’S OFFICE WARNS OF A VERY CONVINCING SCAM

Jan. 18, 2024 — FBI WARNS OF SEXTORTION THREATS TARGETING MINORS AND TEENS

Oct. 13, 2023 — MORE LAW ENFORCEMENT SCAM ALERTS

Craig Police Chief Mike Cochran says it has happened in the area, where people pretend to be with local law enforcement.

“They pretend to be people with the law enforcement agency requesting money be sent for a warrant or a missed court date, so always confirm where you’re donating your money.”