Posts on Facebook have falsely claimed that a âlittle boy approximately 2 years oldâ has been found walking at night by a police officer, either in Hereford or 170 miles away in Kingâs Lynn.
The post claiming this happened in Hereford was shared in a local Facebook group with more than 25,000 members, along with two photos of a child with bruises and cuts on his face.
It says: âThis little boy approximately 2 years old was found last night walking behind a home here in #hereford Deputy Tyler Cooper saved him and took him to the Police Station but no one has an idea where he lives, the neighbours donât know him or how he got there. He says his momâs name is Ella. Letâs flood our feeds so that this post may reach his family, thank you.â
A separate post claiming the same thing happened in Kingâs Lynn in Norfolk is almost identical, and includes the same photos.
Neither post is true. The force responsible for Hereford, West Mercia Police, told Full Fact that thereâs no record of an incident matching the description in the post, and that it doesnât have an officer called âTyler Cooperâ. Norfolk Constabulary confirmed to us that it doesnât have a âdeputyâ rank or an officer called âTyler Cooperâ.
These posts appear to be the latest example of hoax posts that weâve seen falsely raise an alarm for missing children and elderly people, abandoned infants and injured dogs in Facebook community groups.
Our investigation into these sorts of hoax posts last year found that theyâre often edited later to promote something completely different, such as a property listing or cashback site, with comments frequently disabled to prevent users calling them out publicly. Both of these Facebook posts had their comments section disabled.
Our guide offers more tips for how to spot if a Facebook post is a hoax.
Weâve written to Facebookâs parent company Meta expressing concerns about how these hoax posts can flood community groups, and asking the company to take stronger action in response to this problem.
