Posting about a missing person on Facebook just makes sense. Meta’s social media platform has incredible reach and spreads info extremely fast. But when you see such a post in your feed, don your critical thinking-cap before reacting. There are a few kinds of Missing Person Posts on Facebook. And each one merits a different response.
Legitimate Missing Person Posts
A real and trustworthy Missing Person Post will clearly display:
- The missing person’s full name, age, height, weight and last known attire
- A police department’s name, location and phone number, to which you would report any sighting or critical info
- Links to an Amber Alert or other missing-persons website
Check out this Virginia State Police page for active missing person alerts. Reviewing these will make you familiar with the type of alerts you may trust. If you see these posts on social media, you should feel safe in sharing them and interacting with them.
Suspicious Missing Person Posts
On other occasions, you may see a social media post that asks for help in finding someone… but it isn’t quite as buttoned-up. The post will truly be from a local person, asking for help in locating another local, but:
- No police department or authorities are mentioned
- They request you call or text a personal cell number
- The post asks for private messages only
This could be a legitimate plea for help, but without police involvement, we cannot be certain. Getting involved in this sort of alert could have unknown consequences. Play it safe and do not get involved, unless you know the poster and situation personally. A missing person alert that doesn’t pass the sniff-test could actually be:
- A stalker trying to track down a victim
- A parent seeking to violate a custody order
- An abuser searching for someone who’s fled their home
While rare, you don’t want to accidentally help with those situations. Think twice before sharing or spreading the post, as well.
Scammy Missing Person Posts
And then there are the completely fake missing person alerts. They’re all over Facebook, especially in Facebook Groups. I’ve mentioned these before, but they range from missing kids to adults & old folks and even pets.
These posts will resemble the suspicious posts described above, but there are further tells that are hallmarks of a scam:
- Duplicated photos are shown
- The poster has just recently joined the group
- The poster Likes their own post
- Comments are disabled
- There is no contact info, to the police or any individual
- The town name has been hashtagged (marked with a #)
- The only urgent request is that you Share the post
This type of post is 100% fiction, and there is no missing child/adult/pet. The photo has been swiped from somewhere else on the internet, and is being used to catch your eye and tug on your heartstrings. Once this scam post has garnered a lot of Shares all across Facebook, the original poster will Edit the original post to something more dangerous. And that Edit will echo down through all of the Shares and spread to thousands or millions of Facebook users. For more details, check out The Facebook Edited-Post Scam.
If you see this type of post, do not Like it or Share it. Use the 3-dots button in the corner of the post to report it, to Facebook and to the “group admins”.
