CRIME, POLICE + COURTS
Watch out for Facebook scammers using lost dog ads
Apr 20, 2023, 8:00 PM | Updated: 8:54 pm

There's a new way scammers might be using your local Facebook group against you. Think twice before sharing a neighbor's lost dog ad. Photo: Getty Images
SALT LAKE CITY — There’s a new way scammers might be using your local Facebook group against you. Think twice before sharing a neighbor’s lost dog ad.
Scammers are posing as community members and making fake lost pet posts asking for help. When users share that post, their friends see a completely different ad for a rental property or a cash prize.
“It looks like your Facebook friend has shared this rental, so it must be legitimate,” said the Chief of Staff for the Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern Michigan Luara Blankenship.
According to the Better Business Bureau, some telltale signs of a scam are where the person’s from. For example, are they part of a local Utah group but posting from Florida? Additionally, the Bureau advises people to take a step back and ask why, for bigger ads about missing children, they haven’t heard about it on the news.
For more information check out the Better Business Bureau’s website.
Devin Oldroyd contributed to this story.
Keep reading
- Scammers see opportunity in Utah’s flooding
- IRS warns of tax scams as filing deadline rapidly approaches
- FBI says $10 billion lost to online fraud in 2022 as crypto investment scams surged
- Utah Medical Cannabis Program warns of pot franchise scam
- Job scams top the list as second most prevalant — here is how to avoid