That post might change into an ad for home rent. The photos of the house will be really nice and the rent will be quite affordable. It’ll likely mention they welcome pets and Section 8 vouchers. There will be contact information, where I’m sure they’ll be happy to hold the house if you put down a deposit today.

Of course, the house doesn’t exist.

The post might change to an offer of a work-from-home job that pays well and seems like it would be easy to do. They’ll offer to send you a cashier’s check to buy all the things you’ll need to get set up. Then they’ll ask you to send them back the balance. The check they sent will eventually bounce and you’ll be stuck.

The takeaway here is to do a little homework before blindly sharing posts.

Posts with comment turned off are a huge red flag. So are posts that seem a little generic.

If the person with the lost dog doesn’t mention a specific location where the dog was last seen, it’s fake.

The post I referenced earlier misspelled the name of the town. I’m sure the dog photo just gets posted to group after group, changing the name of the town.

You can also check on the profile of the poster. When did they join the group? Is this their first post to the group?

You owe it to your friends to do a little checking before you share a post on their page.

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