Social media is ripe with scams and there’s one nearby that purports to have found a missing child.
Morgantown Police Chief Giles Taylor said, “… there’s some type of scam on Facebook going on around here. I don’t know what it does, maybe it’s just a way for scammers to get you to click it (but) I don’t know its purpose.”
Taylor, though, said the scam originated in New York.
In the scam post, found on the “For free in Morgantown” Facebook page, the scammer writes: “I’m Desperately trying to find the parents of this sweet girl I picked up wandering the streets in Morgantown near the park. She is approximately 2-3 years old!”
A photo accompanying the scam post (see photo), shows what appears to a be a small child eating a hamburger and drinking from a bottled water, implying the fake child was hungry in an attempt to garner sympathy and interest in the post.
“I’m not saying we don’t have the occasional child wander around but people usually call us and we sort it out pretty quick,” Taylor said.
The chief noted that this is the second “fake found child post” that he’s seen over the last couple of weeks.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
