Has anyone else noticed a flood of child snatching warning posts on FB?

[smokey]

In the last week I have seen 3 posts from different people all claiming the same sort of thing, "bewarnd child snatched from ????" all are localish area for same sort of day yet all so far have been confirmed by police as being untrue (they made a local paper statement about them being false to reassure parents)

Why would anyone make up such a thing to scare people or spread rumours without looking into it themselves?
I just don't get it as it takes focus away from genuine ones, do people get thrills about making up this sort of thing to see how quickly it spreads?

I was just wondering if its a local thing or if it seems to be some new fad to make this up and if others have noticed it.

 

[AP]

I think some of them are rubbish tbh. Okay potentially true but rubbish.

 

[smokey]

Most of them seem to be untrue, just wondering if anyone else has noticed a sudden increase in untrue "local gossip" type stories.
FB will always be a haven for spreading panic where he said, she said or I just heard this is concerned.

A few months back I made a post about a local girl who had apparently been abducted because someone from the school told me and there was loads of police outside the school yet even that one seems to have turned into nothing so again looks like it was made up by someone.

 

[Kate&Lucas]

They pop up on mine now and then. Usually when there's a big case in the news (April Jones etc). It's always the same people who post them too. Clearly full of crap.

 

[shellideaks]

They pop up on my facebook from time to time, I tend to just ignore them. Although about 2 weeks ago one was going round and it was actually true as we received a letter about it from Max's school confirming it.

 

[MrsPear]

I saw a local one the other week which turned out to be true and was on national news. But generally I do assume them to be fake. It's crazy that people want to make that shit up to scare people.

 

[amjon]

I haven't seen any but we don't take any chances with the boys anyway. They are always right with at least one of us or someone we trust.

 

[Abigailly]

It happens all the time up here, people sharing posts about a missing child but no one knowing them and the police never having heard of it. It's horrific.

Mainly because a few weeks ago, a town about 5 miles away did have a little girl snatched. And I saw the post on Facebook and dismissed it as rubbish. Then discovered it was true, after she was found.

Turns out, the 8 year old was bundled into a white van, driven away and dumped in a field, luckily un harmed.

if I had thought it to be true I'd have been there in a flash helping with a search party. But as with 'The boy who cried wolf' I just ignored it.

 

[Pearls18]

It's usually crap. After the Lee Rigby murder there were posts flying around saying that military wives were being snatched outside bases, all pathetic scare mongering. Some people's lives are so empty and sad.

 

[CormacksGirl]

Not kids no, but there is a lot about dogs being stolen and how not to put signs on gates saying beware this (insert breed of dog here) lives here, as seemingly you're advertising that you have dogs. Some folk just have too much time on there hands!x

 

[Evansangel]

I've seen one going around about how kids are being taken right out of windows from their homes. Wtf?

I never 'share' things like that on fb, it's almost always made up.