LPS says they have seen an influx of hoax posts, primarily on Facebook, that involve missing children, wandering seniors, children found with no identification or injured pets. (Photo: LNN)

By Christian Oldale

Lethbridge Police warning public to be cautious sharing social media posts

Jul 19, 2024 | 11:46 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The Lethbridge Police Service (LPS) is advising the public to be careful with what they post on social media.

LPS says they have seen an influx of hoax posts, primarily on Facebook, that involve missing children, wandering seniors, children found with no identification or injured pets.

The posts then get shared many times across the platform, 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.

Sergeant Kevin Talbot with the Economic Crimes Unit said, “Scammers prey on good intentions and the desire to help. 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.

What's Happening in Lethbridge this weekend: August 30, 2024

Aug 30, 2024

What's Happening in Lethbridge this weekend: August 23, 2024

Aug 23, 2024

What's Happening in Lethbridge this weekend: August 16, 2024

Aug 16, 2024

Upon clicking the link and joining the group, scammers have the opportunity to collect personal information.

LPS provided a list of tips to help avoid hoaxes:

• 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.

Anyone who believes they have been scammed is asked to contact LPS.

READ MORE: Lethbridge News Now.

—

If you have a news tip, question or concern, please email Lethbridge.newsroom@Pattisonmedia.com.