There are many benefits to living in a social media age, but unfortunately, there are a lot of disadvantages that come along with it.

We all turn to social media to share and get information for pretty much anything, but this gives scammers the perfect opportunity to take advantage of us too.

We may know opening messages and clinking links from unknown people are bad, but did you know trying to reunite a sweet, lost dog with its owner could open you up to a scammer's dirty deeds too?

Yeah, I didn't know this either and it makes me MAD!

Beware of the 'Lost Dog' Scam on Facebook

On Monday I saw several of my friends on Facebook share a post from the Rockford Buy/Sell group that included these two pictures and a "desperate" message...

Debbie L. Thompson via Facebook, Canva
Debbie L. Thompson via Facebook, Canva
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Hi all, I’m desperately trying to find the owner of this sweet girl I picked up on the roadside in #Rockford. Please help bump this post so she can be reunited with her owner. She is not chipped🙏🙏

After seeing this post my first thought was, "what a beautiful dog, I have to try and help return her to her family", but before I clicked "share" I noticed a few red flags...

Red Flag One - The comments.

On one of my friend's pages who shared this post I saw someone named Lauren comment;

This is a scam post, they get you to share it when you click on the link they can hack your Facebook account. A friend of mine in Europe shared this exact photo the other day. Any lost dogs or missing children through those buy sell groups is usually a scam

Excuse me, what? Scammers are using adorable pets now? NOT COOL.

Red Flag Two - Comments have been turned off by the person who originally posted it.

If you've got nothing to hide, why wouldn't you allow people to comment?

Facebook
Facebook
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Red Flag Three- The profile pic of the original poster who "found" the dog does not match the woman in the photos. Sure, there is a possibility that "Debbie L. Thompson" was not alone when she "found" this dog and that her companion could be the woman in the picture, but this just seems like a HUGE red scamming flag to me!

Facebook
Facebook
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The moral of this story is; always look a little deeper into who posted something you are about to share on social media, just in case...and NEVER click any links!

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