What's the truth behind the viral plea for missing children online?
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In an age where social media has become a powerful tool for spreading information rapidly, it's not uncommon to see urgent appeals for missing children circulating on platforms like Facebook.
These posts tug at our heartstrings and compel us to act, often by sharing the message far and wide in the hope of reuniting a lost child with their family.
However, a disturbing trend has emerged, one that exploits our compassion and reveals a darker side to these seemingly benevolent posts.
Australia's leading child safety advocate, Denise Morcombe, has exposed a 'deplorable' scam that uses fabricated alerts about missing children to ensnare kind-hearted and unsuspecting individuals.
Denise, whose own son Daniel was tragically abducted in 2003, expressed her disgust upon discovering this manipulative tactic, which first appeared in North America around two years ago.
These emotional appeals, complete with photos and names, began to spread like wildfire across Facebook, only for some astute users to notice that the same appeals were being posted in various cities, with identical images and names but different locations.
Recently, Australians were targeted by a viral post about a 'missing' boy named Ryan Johnson, who was said to have autism and required daily medication.
The post, which featured a photo of a red-headed boy, claimed, ‘He is considered to possibly be in EXTREME danger and in need of medical assistance.’
It urged people to share the post, but the truth was that no such child existed, and there were no active missing person reports fitting the description.
Despite this, Australians have shared fake appeals thousands of times.
Denise has expressed concern that these scams could lead to public apathy towards genuine missing person cases.
‘These people are just deplorable. These fake appeals, scammers crying wolf, might mean that when a child or an adult actually goes missing, people might see real appeals and think, “Oh, not again, I won’t worry about that”,’ Denise said.
‘When someone does go missing, police want help getting the message out and raising awareness. I worry this might [undermine] that need.’
For eight years, Denise and her husband Bruce worked tirelessly to keep their son Daniel's name and face in the media while searching for answers.
‘Social media wasn’t a big thing back then,’ she recalled.
‘But so many people helped. Every day, people from all over were spreading the word, talking about Daniel…we had a massive amount of media. We did everything to get information out there.’
They understood the importance of public support and the role social media can play in such efforts.
Denise urged social media users to verify the source of posts before sharing them.
‘When a child goes missing, the police will issue an “Amber Alert”. These are authentic appeals for information. Also, each police service has its own presence on social media, where they share information,’ she said.
‘People should be aware before they just share. It should come from an official place, not posts on community marketplaces and that kind of thing.’
The sinister motive behind these fraudulent posts may not always be clear, but discussions on other social media platforms forums suggested that scammers might later edit the messages to include a dodgy link.
Jeffrey Blevins, a Professor of Journalism and International Affairs, warned that scammers might use these tactics as a 'gullibility check'.
‘They’re likely to circle back to you later to see what you’re willing to share, or they might try to engage you one-on-one, get you to accept a friend request, that kind of thing,’ he said.
The National Anti-Scam Centre has not received complaints about this specific con tactic but urged Australians to be vigilant about online scams, including phishing attempts to steal personal or financial details.
Phishing was the most common scam type reported last year, accounting for 45 per cent of all reports to ScamWatch.
‘Australians are encouraged to adopt a “think before you click” approach for email, text, social media and other online messages,’ the Australian Federal Police said.
‘Be particularly cautious with messages that invoke a sense of urgency, sound too good to be true, or come from organisations or individuals you don’t recognise. If in doubt, contact the sender using contact details from a legitimate source.’
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is investigating these fraudulent posts.
‘Scammers present a challenge in many environments, including social media, and they are constantly finding new ways to deceive people,’ the Meta spokesperson said.
‘Meta adopts a multifaceted approach to tackle scams. We use both technology, such as new machine learning techniques, and specially trained reviewers to identify and action content and accounts that violate our policies.’
‘In the first quarter of 2024, we removed 631 million fake accounts globally. We partner with local organisations to educate consumers to spot and avoid scams and bring enforcement action against scammers.’
Have you ever come across a suspicious appeal on social media? How do you determine what to share and what to question? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.
These posts tug at our heartstrings and compel us to act, often by sharing the message far and wide in the hope of reuniting a lost child with their family.
However, a disturbing trend has emerged, one that exploits our compassion and reveals a darker side to these seemingly benevolent posts.
Australia's leading child safety advocate, Denise Morcombe, has exposed a 'deplorable' scam that uses fabricated alerts about missing children to ensnare kind-hearted and unsuspecting individuals.
Denise, whose own son Daniel was tragically abducted in 2003, expressed her disgust upon discovering this manipulative tactic, which first appeared in North America around two years ago.
A deplorable ‘scam’ was exposed involving missing children on Facebook. Credit: Shutterstock
These emotional appeals, complete with photos and names, began to spread like wildfire across Facebook, only for some astute users to notice that the same appeals were being posted in various cities, with identical images and names but different locations.
Recently, Australians were targeted by a viral post about a 'missing' boy named Ryan Johnson, who was said to have autism and required daily medication.
The post, which featured a photo of a red-headed boy, claimed, ‘He is considered to possibly be in EXTREME danger and in need of medical assistance.’
It urged people to share the post, but the truth was that no such child existed, and there were no active missing person reports fitting the description.
Despite this, Australians have shared fake appeals thousands of times.
Denise has expressed concern that these scams could lead to public apathy towards genuine missing person cases.
‘These people are just deplorable. These fake appeals, scammers crying wolf, might mean that when a child or an adult actually goes missing, people might see real appeals and think, “Oh, not again, I won’t worry about that”,’ Denise said.
‘When someone does go missing, police want help getting the message out and raising awareness. I worry this might [undermine] that need.’
For eight years, Denise and her husband Bruce worked tirelessly to keep their son Daniel's name and face in the media while searching for answers.
‘Social media wasn’t a big thing back then,’ she recalled.
‘But so many people helped. Every day, people from all over were spreading the word, talking about Daniel…we had a massive amount of media. We did everything to get information out there.’
They understood the importance of public support and the role social media can play in such efforts.
Denise urged social media users to verify the source of posts before sharing them.
‘When a child goes missing, the police will issue an “Amber Alert”. These are authentic appeals for information. Also, each police service has its own presence on social media, where they share information,’ she said.
‘People should be aware before they just share. It should come from an official place, not posts on community marketplaces and that kind of thing.’
The sinister motive behind these fraudulent posts may not always be clear, but discussions on other social media platforms forums suggested that scammers might later edit the messages to include a dodgy link.
Jeffrey Blevins, a Professor of Journalism and International Affairs, warned that scammers might use these tactics as a 'gullibility check'.
‘They’re likely to circle back to you later to see what you’re willing to share, or they might try to engage you one-on-one, get you to accept a friend request, that kind of thing,’ he said.
Denise urged social media users to verify the source of posts before sharing them. Credit: Shutterstock
The National Anti-Scam Centre has not received complaints about this specific con tactic but urged Australians to be vigilant about online scams, including phishing attempts to steal personal or financial details.
Phishing was the most common scam type reported last year, accounting for 45 per cent of all reports to ScamWatch.
‘Australians are encouraged to adopt a “think before you click” approach for email, text, social media and other online messages,’ the Australian Federal Police said.
‘Be particularly cautious with messages that invoke a sense of urgency, sound too good to be true, or come from organisations or individuals you don’t recognise. If in doubt, contact the sender using contact details from a legitimate source.’
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is investigating these fraudulent posts.
‘Scammers present a challenge in many environments, including social media, and they are constantly finding new ways to deceive people,’ the Meta spokesperson said.
‘Meta adopts a multifaceted approach to tackle scams. We use both technology, such as new machine learning techniques, and specially trained reviewers to identify and action content and accounts that violate our policies.’
‘In the first quarter of 2024, we removed 631 million fake accounts globally. We partner with local organisations to educate consumers to spot and avoid scams and bring enforcement action against scammers.’
