LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A new scam disguised as a social media post about a missing child has begun to emerge across the internet.
The post references a child named "Tyler Griffin," along with his mother giving a description of the young boy.
It was shared across Facebook groups in Kentuckiana along with a picture, but there were some discrepancies and key details about the boy were missing like the school he attends, his grade level or even his age.
A quick search for his name on social media reveals numerous screenshots of the same post, sometimes with a different yet similar photo, in other community groups across the United States.
Experts say vague information like this is exactly how scammers grab people’s attention.
Whitney Adkins with the Better Business Bureau said the best way to judge if a post is legitimate or not is to look at the post itself.
“Compare the photo of the child to the description. In this case we had a photo of a very young child that didn’t really match the physical description in the copy,” Adkins said. “The height didn’t quite match up with the photo that’s allegedly a recent photo. Some other red flags are what information is included or not included in the post.”
Louisville Metro Police Department’s Missing Person Unit recommends reporting all missing persons to them and to only share the flyers of missing people that are posted on their social media.
You can also contact the FBI to file a report about a fraudulent scam.
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