A week wouldn’t be complete without some viral hoax spreading on Facebook. The latest one has been around for  a while, but it’s rapidly spreading now:

“This message is for every Girl Who Goes to college or office alone.If u find any child carrying on road showing his/her address n asking u to take him/her to that address,take that child to police station n plz don’t take it to that address . IT IS A NEW WAY GANGS TO STEAL,RAPE and KIDNAP GIRLS .plz circulate to all .don’t feel shy to copy This as ur status.  OUR ONE MESSAGE MAY SAVE A GIRL”

Snopes confirms that this story is bogus. We were unable to find a corroborating news story on this particular item. What we did find was a couple of other scam busting sites debunking the story as a hoax as well: Hoax-slayer & ThatsNonsense.

Although the message is a hoax, there is still a teachable moment here. If, for some odd reason, a situation like this should ever occur, it would not be prudent to take the child to the address on the piece of paper. First off, why would a child have a piece of paper with their address on it? It doesn’t make much sense at all. Your best course of action would be to contact the authorities and wait with the child until they arrive. You don’t want the liability or potential legal problems of your own for transporting the child.

People usually have good intentions when they spread messages like this, but the reality is that spreading false information helps no one. Always spend a few minutes and check the facts before passing warnings along to your friends.

If you or your Facebook friends are falling for tricks like this, it’s time to get yourself informed of the latest threats. Be sure to join the Facecrooks community of over 120,000 fans on Facebook to be kept informed of the latest security issues.

Recommended Resources

BitDefender Safego is a Facebook application you can install that will scan your News Feed and help keep you safe from scams like this.

PRIVATE WiFi® is a Personal VPN that encrypts everything you send and receive. Don’t access Facebook from a public WiFi hotspot without it.