Warning over scam missing person and animal Facebook posts

Scammers are appealing to people’s emotions to spread scams and steal personal information, Flintshire Council's Trading Standards has said.

People see a Facebook post about a missing person and/or animal, and so they share it. More and more people share this post until it has a far reach.

When this happens, the scammer edits the post to show a scam with phishing links. In many cases they change the post to advertise surveys or housing websites, which enables them to gain money.

As you have shared it, your friends may inadvertently click them thinking you’re recommending it. Often the comments on these posts are disabled as well so other users can't warn you.

An example of a scam post which was recently shared across Flintshire. (Image: User generated content)

Trading Standards said: "Before sharing any post take a good look at it, sometimes you can tell by what’s in the background that the picture was not taken in the UK e.g. cars with foreign registrations, types of houses and trees.

"Look at the original poster's profile, this will often be a new account with no friends and just a single profile picture and their location may state they live in a different country.

"Please report these scams to Facebook so that they can be removed and to Action Fraud."

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Kelly Roberts, from Wrexham, runs Ark Angels animal rescue.

She said: "Scam artists are just taking advantage of vulnerable people, using lost dogs and dogs that have apparently been hit by a cars.

"The UK is a nation of animal lovers and they are just trying to target the most vulnerable people in the hopes of scamming them out of some money or handing over important- personal or financial information."