“Missing Child”? Idaho Scammers Have Officially Sunk To A New Low

Just when you didn't think scammers were bad enough, they came out with one of the most deplorable scams in existence. It's already bad enough that you want to deceive helpless people out of their money and it's a whole other to weaponize others for gain.

An unfortunate trend

As we all might imagine, scammers can become an absolute headache for law enforcement. The latest scam involves weaponizing misinformation and children - yes, children.

If you've wandered the corners of social media lately, you might have noticed images of missing children being posted on Facebook in "Buy, Sell, and Trade" groups. They've also been spotted in other similar market groups.

According to Twin Falls Police, these children aren't actually missing:

This afternoon we were made aware of this post that was made in a local Buy, Sell, Trade Facebook group. This is a hoax. The Twin Falls Police Department does not have this child and these same photos and message are being shared on a variety of "Buy, Sell, Trade" groups throughout the United States.

In this instance, Twin Falls PD is referring to a post that was shared in one of those trading groups showing a "found" child in Twin Falls.

"This little boy, approximately 3 years old, was found 1 hour ago here in #twinfalls," the scam post says.

"Officers have the child safe at the Police Station but we have no idea where he lives. No one has called looking for him. Let's flood our feeds so this post can reach his family... IT ONLY TAKES 2 SECONDS TO SHARE."

As Twin Falls police have highlighted - there is no missing child. As a matter of fact, some people in their comment section shared that they've seen the photo of the child the scammers are using... and that child may have been a victim of a separate and unrelated crime.

Disgusting.

Why would a scammer do this? What's the benefit?

There are different theories as to why people would do this and one of the more popular theories is that scammers are (obviously) trying to pull at our heartstrings. Allegedly, if you share the post, there's a chance you might be asked for a small donation to help the child or the family in need.

Again - this is one of many theories and none of them should be so easily dismissed.

Especially if Idaho scammers are stooping this low.