Spammers are targeting Facebook users in Smith County

November 25, 2022

Local groups on Facebook have become bombarded with ‘spammers’ posting false information in an attempt to deceive users into sharing.

Public groups such as ‘Gordonsville, Tennessee Yard Sale’ have been hit especially hard in recent weeks by bad actors stooping to new lows with posts of missing children or elderly persons who aren’t actually missing — at least not in Smith County.

One such post from Sunday, November 20, read: “FLOOD YOUR FEEDS! A Silver Alert has been issued for Robert Spall who went missing from 📍 Gordonsville, TN last night, he has dementia”

As it turns out, Robert Spall is a legitimate person who was the subject of a Silver Alert issued on October 20.

Spall, 95 of Loudon County, Tennessee, was found safe the next day, and the Silver Alert was subsequently cancelled.

There was no Silver Alert issued on his behalf weeks later on November 20 in Smith County.

The photo used in the Facebook post was not of Spall, either.

Another post on November 14 read: “#Gordonsville This is the most recent picture of my son Tyler Angel at
his first day of school, he left yesterday morning for school and he never came back. He was last seen wearing black converses with purple and red shoelaces as well as a blue zip-up hoodie, he has dirty blonde hair, blue eyes and he’s about 5’4-5’5 and 124lb. Please help me find him”

A quick Google search reveals there is no missing child by the name of Tyler Angel, and the identity of the boy whose photo was featured in the post is unknown.

Spammers are using other deceptive tactics as well, such as posting about housing rentals at curiously low monthly rates that don’t align with the current market in Smith County or the surrounding area.

One trick each spam post appears to have in common is having comments turned off.

By disabling comments, no one can call out the posts as being spam — preventing unsuspecting users from this critical piece of information before making the decision to share.

The motive for the spammers is unknown, but Facebook users should be on alert and look for clues before sharing public group posts.

A few things you can do to check to see whether or not a post is legitimate:

  • See if comments on the original post are disabled. If the comments are disabled, it’s probably spam.]
  • If it’s a missing person, verify with other local Facebook pages before sharing, such as the Smith County Sheriff’s Department and local media like Smith County Insider, among other sources. If no credible government or media source has posted the same information, it’s likely spam and should be reported to Facebook, not shared.
  • Look to see if the group is ‘public’ and if anyone can easily join and share content.
  • Check the edit history of the post. Spammers will often change the entirety of the post to something else, such as from a missing person to a fake real estate listing, once it has been shared several times.

These spammers likely reside outside of the United States, as is typically the case.

They make fake accounts to mimic the names and likenesses of people you might believe to be legitimate, and their efforts appear to be working for now.

If you are the administrator of a group, you can help put an abrupt end to this issue my making pages private or at least strictly monitoring new group users and being proactive in post moderation.