Scams hide behind viral posts, like a so-called missing child named Brandan Cooper

Consider this as one more consumer alert to be filed under: Quit rushing to be so darn, helpful. Or maybe take a breath, and ask yourself could this possibly be real?

This summer, we're being warned about a Facebook post about the missing Brandan Cooper. Or sometimes, he's called Brandon. Sadly, it's a social media post about a little boy that should be scoffed at, not shared.

Over the last few weeks, many people on Facebook have been hearing about a missing autistic child in their community. The same Cooper child is being reported missing in every community. He has been missing in Guelph, Ontario; Evansville, Indiana; Lexington, South Carolina; and other towns.

The kid gets around.

CBC News reported that variations of the Brandan Cooper post exist, including some that say the boy needs daily medications and may be in "extreme danger." The post, according to authorities, is getting shared frequently across Canada and parts of the United States.

Fortunately, some people on Facebook are warning others that this is a scam, which is a good thing. We don't need to "bring Brandan home," folks.

Scams appear after you share a fake post

We need to scroll onto something else. Skip past the curly haired kid in the orange vest. Hey, maybe, move along on Facebook and check out what your best friend in high school had for lunch last week.

What's the big deal? Well, these tearjerker stories are being used nonstop by scammers.

The potential scams behind fake posts that go viral are, frankly, impossible to imagine for most of us.

But consumers might end up doing more harm than good by sharing a story of a lost pet or a missing child, if that post proves to be fake. No one would expect this twist, but if enough people share the missing dog or missing kid post, the post can morph into much more down the line.

At some point, your friends won't end up seeing the news about a missing child, the cat who could be locked in someone's garage, or a grandparent who wandered off for hours or days.

Instead, as I warned in a column last year, scammers are able to change the original "missing" post into one that promotes a phony apartment rental, a survey that "guarantees" a cash prize, or some other way to steal money.

Jeff Horncastle, a spokesperson for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre in North Bay, Ontario, told the Free Press by email in late July that the scheme enables scammers to target anyone who comes across the ad after it has been altered.

The person sharing the original post, he said, is not going to realize in most cases the post has been changed from information about a missing dog or child to the next phony pitch for cryptocurrency investments, merchandise or rentals.

Yep, you've unwittingly just shared the next way to scam your friends.

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We can help but need to be cautious

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said a red flag of a fake post is that it "does not come from NCMEC, an official law enforcement agency or another credible news source, such as your local or national news."

The group's blog noted that one scam Facebook post, which garnered thousands of shares, began using the photo of a 9-year-old girl who vanished while riding her bike at a New York campground in October 2023. The missing child made headlines across the country and, thankfully, was found safe 47 hours later.

The group notes that the public plays an important role when a child goes missing by disseminating information and photos of missing kids on social media. But it's important to take a step now to make sure what's being shared is real.

Misinformation is all over the internet, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is reminding people to "be cautious and to make sure information is real before sharing a post or photo of a missing child on social media."

So far, metro Detroit consumers aren't reporting the Brandan Cooper scam to the BBB, according to Nakia Mills, director of marketing for the Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern Michigan & the Upper Peninsula in Southfield. But, according to Mills, consumers did report similar bait-and-switch Facebook posts in the past few years.

Too often, she said, people are quick to share something on social media without doing any research or verifying the information, giving scammers an edge.

Last year, the BBB had heard of a local case where a post started out on social media telling people about a missing dog but later the post turned into a fake rental pitch for a three-bedroom house at $550 a month. "There is no deposit required, and all pets are welcome!" You'd never share that post with friends but, somehow, that's what they saw.

More:There's a viral post about a missing autistic child in Evansville. And it's a scam

Yes, we want to be kind. We want to believe that somehow, some way, we can help find a missing person or animal by sharing a social media post. Isn't that what we learned in school? To care about others? OK, but hopefully you learned that some people are crooks, too.

Look, I don't mean to be cold. I love grandparents, little kids, and every single dog.

I'm so incredibly thankful to my neighbors several doors down the block who ran out of their house, with treats in hand, one Saturday in December to help my son corral one kooky corgi who darted out of our back door and repeatedly kept running back and forth into traffic on our fairly busy street. My enthusiastic young dog ran out of the house so fast — and he was caught so quickly — that social media posts were not necessary.

And nearly 24 years ago, even a few years before Facebook, my mother had what our family now lovingly calls her little incident. She drove to 4 p.m. Mass one Saturday in early December, stopped on the way back at two grocery stores and, then, somehow couldn't find her way home.

My mother drove her little green Plymouth Breeze all night in Detroit into the next morning, stopping to park a few times. We only found her after an extensive effort, which included staying up all night and calling every single person I knew for help. I woke one friend after midnight and she drove along with me during my leg of the search.

Then, later on Sunday, a stranger in Detroit, a complete stranger, somehow convinced my highly cautious, skeptical mom to let him drive her car to take her to the 11th Precinct in Detroit where, ultimately, my brother-in-law picked her up. And, yes, I am forever thankful for a man and his wife who saw my then-76-year-old mother driving the wrong way on a street on Detroit's east side. Somehow, he found it in his heart to help her.

We all need a friend sometimes to guide us safely home.

And I've seen plenty of people post real stories of lost cats and dogs. I posted one for my pal Poppy down the street once myself a few years ago. (Poppy returned home four months later.) Unfortunately, though, you've got to ask yourself if you should really share a random social media post about someone's lost Busia or Abuela. Or goofball dog Skippy? Or random Brandan?

A spokesperson for Meta, the company that owns Facebook, wouldn't comment on the missing child, missing dog or Brandan Cooper scam of the summer. Instead, she forwarded some links for the Meta Anti-Scams Hub, Safety Center - Scam Prevention and How do I mark a Facebook post as false news?

If you suspect a post is a scam, report it to Facebook.

What are the signs of a scam?

My best tip in this case is just scroll on by. If you somehow think the post might be real and you want to make sure, here are some signs of a scam, as suggested by the BBB and others:

Comments: Did someone who made the missing child or lost dog post then turn off the comments? Big red flag there. If you're sincere about finding someone, some say that you would want tips on who saw the loved one or pet most recently.

Do a background check: Take a look at the person who created and shared the original post. Do they even live in the area? If the profile is from Florida but the post started being shared in a Canadian group, the BBB said, it's a red flag of a possible bait-and-switch publication. And how long has that person been a member of the group? Did they just join a few days ago?

Reality check: Could you Google the child's name or the pet's name to see whether there are alerts about fraudulent posts? Can you find some real news about the case, maybe at legitimate social media sites for law enforcement? The BBB suggests that you can do a reverse search on Google to find out if the pictures you saw were used on other ads or websites in different cities.

Media coverage. Did you check to see what your local newspaper or TV station has reported on this so-called incident?

Most likely, they're not reporting on a missing pet, but a child at risk likely will get some coverage. This summer, we're covering the scam at risk when you start circulating those posts about Brandan Cooper.

Contact personal finance columnist Susan Tompor: stompor@freepress.com. Follow her on X (Twitter) @tompor.