A child named Brandan Cooper isn't missing, contrary to social media posts that prompt scam warning

It's a warning that strikes fear: A child with autism is missing.

But police in Guelph, Ont., say a post circulating on social media that shows a young boy with curly hair named Brandan Cooper is fake and a scam. CBC has been unable to confirm who the child is in the photos being widely shared and, in order to protect the child's privacy, are not sharing the entire photo. 

Police shared a screenshot of a Facebook post dated July 15 and warned the public: "don't share or interact with any similar posts."

Variations of the post warn the child is missing, in need of daily medications and may be in "extreme danger."

Each post shows the same photo of a young boy with curly, red hair smiling up at the camera. He is wearing an orange vest that says, "Autistic, Be Kind." 

"We are not aware of any such missing person and this same post has appeared on social media sites across Canada and the U.S.," police said.

It's similar to other posts about missing people or pets that are shared on social media, said Jeff Horncastle, a spokesperson for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

Horncastle explained how a scam like this might work.

"After a certain period of time, the fraudster changes the ad to a fraudulent merchandise or investments/crypto investments advertisement which gives them the ability to target anyone that comes across the ad once it has been altered by the fraudster," Horncastle said in an email.

"In most cases, the person sharing the original post does not realize that the post has been altered as it is further down their page."

Scott Tracey, media relations co-ordinator with Guelph Police Service, said people think it's a legitimate post about a local child or pet and see that it's been shared many times.

"I saw one even this morning from someone claiming to be renting an apartment in Guelph for $600 a month, which is ludicrous as anyone in the market knows. And it included a link — click on this link and you can get more information." 

Clicking the link, however, takes people to an unrelated website.

Scam duplicated in other Canadian, U.S. cities

Tracey said he searched on Facebook for a missing child named Brandan Cooper and managed to find identical scams in other Canadian and U.S. cities. 

"The only thing different was the name of the place where this person was supposedly missing from," Tracey said, adding it's one way that they knew it was a scam.

Tracey said the police service does not have any reports of a Brandan Cooper missing in Guelph. 

CBC News found there are active posts with the same image in cities like Halifax and Windsor, Ont. Similar posts also appeared in the U.S., U.K. and Australian cities. 

As many as three U.S. police services, including the Dooly County Sheriff's Office in Georgia, also warned of the scam on social media.

All of these departments reshared posts that used similar text and images.

"This is a fake post," the sheriff's office wrote in a Facebook post. "No one has reported anyone by the name 'Brandan Cooper' missing in Dooly County."

CBC News reached out to Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram where the post was shared, for comment. The company didn't provide comment on the specific case, but a spokesperson pointed to the company's tips to help users from falling victim to scams. 

The company has warnings for a variety of scams on its platforms — including those relating to investments, romance and "friends in need" — where it might appear that a friend on the platform is asking for help. However, there isn't a warning about missing children or pets.  

Meta also provides step-by-step instructions on how to report scams and "false news."

Tracey recommends that before engaging with such posts, do some basic research — he noted that if a person goes missing locally, police will post about it through their social media. 

"The key is don't blindly trust something that you see online," he said.