That's what this article is about
- Fake profiles: Emergence of fake profiles on Facebook
- Compassion: Pathetic status posts about injured dogs
- Share: Disabled commenting and sharing prompts
- The scam: processing contributions to dubious loan offers
- Emotions: Exploiting the helpfulness and emotions of users
- The goal: advance payment fraud as the aim of the fraudsters
Compassion: From a supposedly helpless animal to a fraudulent loan offer - This is how fraudsters deceive on Facebook
In the last few weeks, there has been an increasing number of posts on Facebook from apparently newly created fake profiles, which at first glance appear to be looking for the community's help. The posts contain pathetic text and photos of an allegedly injured dog that was allegedly hit by a car in a hit-and-run. The scammers appeal to users' compassion by claiming that the animal is in critical condition and is looking for its owner. The fake profile immediately deactivates the comment function to prevent dialogue with other users, and the scammers ask you to share the post again and again.

It's about pity: In this case, the status posts are always (sic!)
Hello If anyone is looking for this sweet girl, I found her lying on the side of the road. She was hit by a car in a hit-and-run. Took her to the vet, she is in critical condition, has multiple fractures and is suffering from pain and oxygen. She's not chipped, I know someone is looking for her. Please repost this post to help me find the owner
This scam is making the rounds not only in German-speaking countries, but also in English-speaking countries. Here too the status amount is:

Hello. If anyone is looking for this sweet girl, found her lying on the side road in #Le county She was hit by a car in a hit and run incident.I took her to the vet she is in a critical condition,sustained multiple fractures and on pain relief and oxygen. She is not chipped I know someone is looking for her. Please bump this post to help me find the owner
After the posts have been shared by hundreds of users, they are edited by the fake profiles
Suddenly, the compassionate post about the injured dog turns into a loan offer designed to lure users into a prepayment trap. Since the posts have already been shared hundreds of times, the dubious loan offers reach thousands of users, increasing the likelihood that some users will fall for the scam.
The fraudsters do this very cleverly: they use stolen pictures of injured dogs from the Internet to appear credible and switch off the comment function to prevent possible clarification from other users. This makes it more difficult to expose fake profiles and fraudulent posts.
In this case, the two photos come from the Facebook page “Animal House Veterinary Clinic” from America, which posted this photo, but also other dog photos, on Facebook on April 3, 2023:

The American clinic is already warning on its own Facebook page that these images are being stolen and misused for fraudulent purposes.

We at Mimikama strongly recommend this
We at Mimikama strongly advise that you critically examine such posts and not share them too quickly. You should also always pay attention to who the post comes from and whether the profile appears credible. If in doubt, you can try contacting the alleged finder directly to get more information and uncover a possible scam.
Don't be fooled by the emotional impact of such news. Fraudsters specifically exploit people's compassion and willingness to help in order to conceal their fraudulent intentions and lure their victims into a trap. To protect yourself and others from such attacks, you should always be vigilant and critically examine such posts before forwarding them.
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

