Identical missing dog posts show trademarks of long-running scam | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·2 min read
2

The claim: Images show dog found in various cities across the country

A Nov. 17 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows three pictures of a Yorkshire Terrier.

"Hello, it's been 2 weeks ... and I haven't found the owner of this sweet yorkie we picked up on the road in Camden," reads part of the post's caption. "Please bump this post to help me find the owner…"

The post garnered more than 2,000 shares in less than two weeks. The same pictures appeared in several other Facebook posts citing different cities, accumulating hundreds more shares.

More from the USA TODAY Fact-Check Team:

Our rating: False

The dog shown in the post wasn't found by the Facebook user. It's an example of a copy-and-paste scam, which is used to find gullible users online, according to experts.

Post is part of long-running scam

The most viral version of this claim asserts the dog was found in Camden, but other users shared the same pictures and claimed the dog was found in locations such as Acworth, Georgia, Yuma, Arizona and Brattleboro, Vermont.

Such posts are examples of copy-and-paste scams, which misinformation expert and University of Cincinnati professor Jeffrey Blevins previously told USA TODAY are used by scammers to find potential future targets.

“It’s a gullibility check,” he said. “They’re likely to circle back with you later on to see what you’re willing to share, or they might try to engage you one-on-one, get you to accept a friend request, that kind of thing."

Fact check: Scammers use viral photo from 2020 for copy-and-paste social media scheme

Bevins said other indications of a scam include a new account making the post and having the comments disabled even though the user is asking for help, as was the case with this Facebook post.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Identical posts featuring missing yorkie are viral scam | Fact check