Just when you think this online scammers can't sink any lower, they prove that nothing is beneath their desires to steal your money, information, and heart.

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Early yesterday morning I was startled to see a posting on the local Shreveport For Sale By Owner (FSBO) Facebook page.

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We obviously blurred the image of this little guy's face to protect his identity since he's as much a victim here as anyone else.

It caught my eye, because here we are just over a week before Christmas and it featured a missing little boy.

Supposedly he had left Wednesday morning for school and never came back.

I was almost gullible enough to immediately spread the word and get the media wheels turning. Thank goodness, the intelligence of my niece, Lindsey Boyd, prevailed as she pointed out that this same little boy had apparently disappeared from a number of locations. Shreveport, Sand Springs, even Norwalk, Ohio.

It was a scam. And these evil-doers where using a possible "missing child" as the bait for their scheme? Got to be the lowest ever!

According to wfsb.com, the Better Business Bureau was already on to their evil deeds.

Posts about lost pets or children on Facebook may not be what they claim.

The Connecticut Better Business Bureau sought to warn Facebook users about a scam that involves users sharing posts about injured or lost pets, or missing children.

After users share the post, a scammer changes the original post to a deceptive rental ad or a link that points to a survey that “guarantees” a cash prize.

Now, those users’ friends think they have recommended that now-sketchy content.

While this might have been the first time I ever saw scammers sink this low, it's obviously nothing novel to these lowlifes.

Should you see follow up reports of lost or missing children or pets, the BBB recommends that you look for a few things in regards to the person posting on one of the sites you frequent:

  • Do a bit of digging before re-sharing a post on your profile. Read the information carefully and look at the profile of the person who created and shared the original post. If the profile is from Florida but shared the post in a Canadian group, it may be a red flag of a bait-and-switch publication.
  • Find out when the poster created the Facebook profile. Scammers always create profiles when their old one gets banned. If you click on their profile, it will tell you how long they have been a member of the group. You can also find additional information on their public profile.
  • You should see it in the news. If a child goes missing or a tragedy occurs, you'll most likely see it on different news outlets or shared by law enforcement, not on a random post.
  • Do a reverse image search on Google. That will allow you to find out if the pictures you saw were used on other ads or websites in different cities.
  • Find similar posts. Copy and paste the text from the post into Facebook's search tool to see if other posts with the same text and different pictures show up.
  • If you suspect a post is a scam, report it to Facebook.

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