Authorities are warning the McHenry County community about fake missing person and missing dog posts circulating online in social media groups.
The McHenry Police Department said Wednesday they have seen numerous Facebook posts that have been repeatedly shared on social media.
The posts are scams and often promote fake missing persons or missing animals.
One post, recently shared in a McHenry group page on Facebook, said a child who takes daily medication and has autism had gone missing.
“HE is considered to possibly be in EXTREME danger and in need of medical assistance,” the post read.
“We are asking for the community’s HELP TO FIND HIM. ONLY TAKES 2 SECONDS to share,” the post said.
The post was fake and there was no missing child in McHenry.
Other fake posts, all of which the posters typically disable comments on, advertised a missing elderly man and missing injured dogs who had been found.
Police said sometimes after the posts are shared, the information in them is changed to include links, which leads to websites with viruses.
“Please know that if our agency is in need of the public’s assistance, we will post from our McHenry Police Department social media pages,” the department said.
Police said the posts typically do not have contact information for family members or a law enforcement agency to contact.
They also typically pull at the reader’s heart by involving children, the elderly or animals.
The users who make the posts usually have not been around for a while, only post in community pages and do not respond to comments or have the comments turned off.