BGPD warns of scams showing up in sale groups
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Bowling Green Police Department is warning the public of scams circulating on social media.
Police say a growing number of scam posts are showing up in local sale groups on Facebook.
A common sign of these scams can be heartbreaking titles, such as, “Please help us find Susie. Susie went missing last week, and law enforcement has been unable to locate her.”
However, police say when you share theses posts, the original creator will change the images within the message, resulting in a deceptive rental ad or a message stating to “click here” to guarantee a cash payment.
The result of opening the ad can be a hacked Facebook account, access to personal information and a scammer contacting Facebook friends.
In order to decide if these posts are honest, police say to consider the following:
- If the post creator lives outside of the country but shares the post in a local sale page, it could be a scam.
- Find similar posts, copy that information and enter it into the Facebook search bar. Check if that information shows up with several other photos.
- If the creator hasn’t posted anything else before within the group and has a new Facebook profile, it may be a scam.
- Check news and local law enforcement pages to see if the information has been shared there. For example, this could be information on a missing child in the area.
- Reverse image search the photo on Google. If multiple posts with different information feature the image, it is likely a scam.
If you come across a post you suspect is a scam, you can report it to Facebook to help prevent it from being shared further.
