Viral posts about a missing 15-year-old Texan named “Gracie Mae Thompson” have been flagged by internet sleuths as a possible scam.
Earlier this month, posts appeared on Facebook claiming that Thompson had been missing since July 22, 2024.
A post seen by Newsweek read: “My daughter has been missing since July 22nd! 16 days🥹 This only takes two seconds to share!”
“#LakeWorth Her name is: Graci Mae Thompson. Age: 15 years old. Height: 5'2″. Weight: 100 lbs. Hair color: Originally strawberry blonde but recently dyed black. She was last seen wearing black shorts and a black shirt.”
Variations of the post reportedly spelled her name either “Graci” or “Gracie” and included the names of several places in the U.S. and around the world.
While not all posts about Thompson included external links or calls to action other than instructions to share the posts, others did, and users began reporting that scammers might be able to use them to distribute malware.
However, as Newsweek discovered, information from an actual missing person investigation was used to stage what many believed to be a hoax.
What happened?
The posts about Thompson appeared in several community groups on Facebook starting August 8, 2024, often in swap or local marketplace communities on the social site.
Each featured photos of a girl with braces and wavy blonde hair. A reverse image search of the photo does not reveal where the images came from or who they belong to.
Other police departments have since flagged some of the posts about Thompson as scams. Colorado's Parachute Police Department published a Facebook post on August 10 with a screenshot of Thompson's photo and the caption “BEWARE OF SCAMS!”
“Actual missing persons reports contain specific information about the person in question, including name and last known whereabouts,” it said.
“If the information does not seem genuine, always check it on the ministry’s website or social media.”
Since then, as blog ScamFinder reports, more posts have surfaced suggesting Thompson has been found, containing new website links that purport to contain information about her reappearance. Scamfinder followed some of the links attached to social media posts about Thompson and instructed the browser to remove VPN and ad blockers.
Some of the posts about Thompson's safe return stated that she was from Tomball, Texas. Newsweek contacted Texas law enforcement to see if any details matched previous or ongoing investigations.
Was there a real investigation?
Chief Deputy Thomas M. Gilliland of the Harris County Sheriff's Office told Newsweek that the person featured in the post is a 15-year-old girl who lives in the Tomball area and was reported as a runaway on July 22, 2024. Her disappearance was investigated by the Harris County Sheriff's Office Missing Runaway Unit.
Gilliland said the teen was “recovered” on Aug. 8 and brought home by investigators. Gilliland confirmed that the Facebook posts included photos uploaded by a family member “several months ago,” but the name was spelled differently.
No arrests were made after her disappearance and no medical examination was required after she was found.
Gilliland confirmed that the Facebook post mentioning Tomball was not a Harris County Sheriff's Office TRAK flyer, used to alert the public to a runaway or missing child.
Missing child scams
Although genuine missing child reports are published on official websites and in social media posts by police departments or other protection agencies, this has not stopped the increasing prevalence of fraudulent social media posts.
Last year, British fact-checking organisation Full Fact said Facebook groups were “inundated” with fake posts about missing children. Like the posts about Thompson, these fake reports were seen in community groups for second-hand marketplaces.
The charity said the false reports were part of a “global phenomenon” in which groups were inundated with “extremely emotive and completely false stories”, including stories about missing children.
Full Fact found that in many cases, once a hoax post has generated engagement, the author of it will use Facebook's editing feature to turn it into something else, such as an ad. It cited as an example a 2023 hoax post about a missing teenager named “Sofia” that was edited by replacing photos and text with a contest invitation.
Last month, police in Lincoln, Nebraska, intervened after a post reported a young boy diagnosed with autism missing.
As 3NewsNow reported, Lincoln police said there were no records of such a child.
“Typically, legitimate missing persons posts do not come from a buy sell trade group on Facebook,” Erykah Thomas, PIO manager for the Lincoln Police Department, told 3NewsNow.
“Additionally, comments are disabled and there is no way for people to interact with the post and ask further questions about this 'missing person.'”
Internet detectives are warning of fraudulent Facebook posts that are associated with a “Gracie Mae Thompson.” The links attached to the posts could contain malware, experts say.
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