Fake ‘missing child’ reports on Facebook used for dangerous scams – ignore these sick posts

FAKE ‘missing child reports’ are scamming Facebook users and could be used to steal your password.

Full Fact, an organisation that tries to combat fake news, has said Facebook posts about the disappearance of a girl called Ellie Morrad are false.

The independent fact checkers reported: “One post says she went missing in St Neots, Cambridgeshire.

“But another says she went missing in Porthmadog in north west Wales.

“The photo accompanying both posts is not of Ellie Morrad but of a girl from Ohio who went missing and was found late last year.

“This girl is not called Ellie Morrad.”

AFP

Cybercriminals might be using the scams to try and steal your password[/caption]

Warnings about the scam have also appeared on Facebook groups.

A Facebook group called Spotted:Crawley posted a screenshot of the missing child scam using the fake ‘Ellie Morrad’ photo.

The post said: “There is a scam going around at the moment saying ‘find our daughter’ it shows a picture of a young girl who was supposedly bundled into a car and kidnapped.

“Once you click on the link, it then asks you to ‘log in’ using your Facebook username and password to view the video.

“It’s a scam to obtain your password.”

Full Fact also spotted other fake posts about a girl called Ellie Morrad that used a different photo of a child from the US.

The organisation says none of the posts are real as it’s found no genuine news reports about a missing Ellie Morrad.

It claims the posts are part of a running trend of fake missing person reports on Facebook.

Some of the posts lead to deceptive websites and may present you with a 404 error message if you click on the link.

Full Fact also says it’s seen evidence of the posts trying to collect personal data from victims.

It said one of the posts sent users to a site which looked like the Facebook login page but was actually fake.

Unknowing users typed in their login details and accidentally handed over their Facebook account to cybercriminals.

Full Fact has not shared links to the malicious posts but has advised Facebook users not to click on them or share them with anyone else.

You can also report problematic posts to Facebook.

Trustworthy sources of missing person reports include organisations like Missing People and Child Rescue Alert as well as the police.

Why does it feel like Facebook is snooping on you?

Here’s what you need to know…

• The magic of targeted advertising is that it should feel relevant to you – even if you can’t figure out why.
• Facebook doesn’t need to spy on your real-life conversations, because you hand over so much information anyway.
• Follow this link and you’ll be able to download everything Facebook knows about you. Most of you will quickly realise it’s a staggering amount of information.
• Advertisers can use information gleaned from your activity all across the web, on multiple devices, even if you’re not logged into Facebook or other services.
• They’ll likely know where you live, what you like, who your friends are, how much money you make, your political beliefs and much more.
• So when you get ads for something you’ve talked about out loud, it’s almost certainly just advertisers being very good at predicting your interests.
• It’s also possible that there’s an advertising campaign running, and you’ve seen an ad and not noticed. You’ve then spoken about it, never realising you’ve been advertised to, and only then notice future ads – which suddenly seem suspicious.
• Let’s say you talked about a holiday to Scotland, and then all of a sudden you’re being advertised holidays to Scotland.
• You may never have searched for anything to do with that before.
• But Facebook could use info about your level of wealth, your past holiday interests, the time of year (ads for wintry Scottish retreats are common in the colder months), and your location.
• What seems like snooping is actually just clever advertising.

In other news, Microsoft Teams just got some new features that could help it rival WhatsApp.

Your Facebook profile picture could be changed without your consent if you break certain coronavirus rules.

And, Facebook is facing backlash in the US over plans to create a version of Instagram for children under 13.

Have you spotted any scams on Facebook recently? Let us know in the comments…

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