North Wildwood Police Spotlight Fake News on Facebook

North Wildwood Police have taken to Facebook to fight back against fake news being published on certain community pages.

What Facebook Page Do Police Point To?

In a Facebook post, North Wildwood Police point to three phony posts on the North Wildwood Online Yard Sale Page that they say are fake.

One shows a young woman crawling under a car to steal its catalytic converter with a headline that encourages you to repost, saying "Let's make this lady famous".

Police say this woman never committed this crime in North Wildwood.

The other fake posts seek help in finding missing senior citizens with dementia, like a missing 85-year-old man who drove away last night with his dog and hasn't been seen since.

Can you believe how insensitive some people are to make a fake news Facebook post about something like that?

Fake posts about missing people really bother me.

Social media can be an important tool when someone really does go missing and this disinformation lessons the chance that people will help out when it is really needed.

North Wildwood Police ask that you don't share these posts and make a bad situation worse.

But there are some ways to know if the post is fake.

There are a few things you can look for in the post that usually tip you off.

!- The first thing you see in a profile on Facebook is their profile picture. You can tell if a profile is genuine or fake by looking at it.

2- Do you know the person posting or does the person have local friends whom you know?

3- Has the person posting ever had any activity on their page before or is this the only post? Users on Facebook shares different things like jokes, music, video, or pictures. If you don’t see such different types of posts, then it could also be a sign of a fake account.