Scam alert: Bait-and-switch Facebook posts target local community groups

You are scanning through your social media and see information about a missing pet, child or senior citizen. The post may include alarming information about an injury, kidnapping or another danger. You share the post to help spread the word.

The poster then edits the original post to a deceptive rental ad or a “guaranteed” cash prize by filling out a survey. Friends will assume the post is legitimate because you shared it, and then fall for a scam.

This bait-and-switch scam is targeting local community groups as well as buy-and-sell groups and yard sale pages, according to the Better Business Bureau serving Western Virginia.

Scammers sometimes also turn comments off on the posts so group members can’t oust them.

These ads aim to either get a deposit for a rental property before the user gets a chance to see the home – or get your personal information, which could lead to identity theft.

This scheme has many variations, but the commonality is the emotional appeal or urgency of the message that encourages concerned people to share the news with their friends.

BBB offers these tips to avoid being scammed by a bait-and-switch Facebook ad:

• Do a bit of digging before resharing a post on your profile. Read the information carefully and look at the profile of the person who created and shared the original post. If the profile is from far outside the locality of the group, it may be a red flag of a bait-and-switch publication.
• Find out when the poster created the Facebook profile. Scammers always create profiles when their old one gets banned. If you click on their profile, it will tell you how long they have been a member of the group. You can also find additional information on their public profile.
• You should see it in the news. If an individual goes missing or a tragedy occurs, you’ll most likely see it on different news outlets or shared by law enforcement, not on a random social media post.
• Do a reverse image search on Google. That will allow you to find out if the pictures you saw were used on other ads or websites in different cities.
• Find 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 different pictures show up.

If you suspect a post is a scam, report it to Facebook and to BBB Scam Tracker.