Scammers continue to prey on emotions to get you to share spam - How to spot it

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A scam post making its rounds on Facebook

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Scammers are preying on your emotions, and because you care, you're unknowingly sharing spam to all of your Facebook friends.

You're scrolling on Facebook and you see an urgent post asking you to share a photo of a teen missing near you, so you click share and move on. A few days later, you see a post you don't recall making. That post has some links off of Facebook, and when you click them, they want your personal information. This is the work of a scammer.

Scammers are making posts that encourage people to share them, such as posts about missing children or pets. Once people have shared the post, the scammer edits it to show the scam post.

These posts are often made in online garage sale groups that are open to the public and have little admin oversight.

This scam isn't new - several variations have been making their way around social media over the past few years. Frequent scam posts include found pets who are injured, stolen items, and missing children. Two currently making their rounds include a teen girl that is said to be missing and a post claiming a young boy with autism is missing.

A fake post about a missing teen girl

What to look for

Many missing pet posts are legitimate, so don't let this scam stop you from sharing posts, but look for signs of a spammer before hitting share.

These scam posts are found in groups that are public, and the original poster will usually turn the comments off. They also do not include a person to contact if you find the missing person.

Speaking of the poster – take a look at their profile. How new is the profile? How many friends does the person have? Where does it say they live? This information could offer clues as to whether the profile is legitimate.

Also, many of these missing posts are copied and pasted with only the location changed, so if you aren't sure, look up the post and see if it's been posted by other people in other areas. For instance, the missing boy post has shown cities in Michigan and other states, and even Puerto Rico.

The posts are vague - they always include a city or county but not an exact area where the so-called missing child left from. If a child is reported missing from your area in a post, check the news and social media accounts of nearby law enforcement agencies to see if they are reporting the missing child. If the local police department isn't saying the child is missing, they probably are not.