Although distrust of social media may affect whether the public believes missing person cases, Gagné said it doesn't impact how police conduct their investigations. — Image by freepik
When a 23-year-old Virginia woman's family couldn't get in touch with her after she packed up her car to move to Maine, they recruited a volunteer search team and took to social media to try to locate her. But their Facebook posts were soon inundated with comments insisting that their calls for help were a scam.
Their pleas were shared in various Maine community Facebook groups, and then taken down by moderators. It's a common social media scam for fraudulent "missing person" posts to later be altered after hundreds of people have shared it to lead users back to a malicious link, law enforcement officials say. Those who run these groups keep a keen eye out for warning signs.
