–
June 12, 2012Posted in: Alerts/Scams, National
One of my friends posted an Amber Alert on Facebook this morning:
Little girl, 3 years old, picked up by a man driving a gray car, license plate: Quebec 72B 381. Please re-post. Three seconds will not kill you. If it were your child you would want the same support.
How awful. The most awful thing about it? It’s not true: Good that this imaginary baby isn’t in danger, but bad that scammers are tricking people. According to the Urban Legends website, this hoax has been running since at least 2009. I saw other reports that looked similar starting in 2006.
Of course people like my friend, who has kids, want to help others in crisis. Unfortunately, fake posts like this one steal attention from real Amber Alerts, in which real children badly need help. They can also cause people to become skeptical of all similar messages, which means the real ones lose their effectiveness.
Before you re-post any urgent message on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media, take a moment to find out whether it’s real, or a hoax. Don’t let your good heart and good intentions be used as fuel for scammers.
Amber Alerts can be authenticated at the website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. You should also be able to google the license plate number listed in the message and see if you get hits for a fake.
Related Posts:
About Holly Doering
Holly Doering has worked for the Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern Washington, North Idaho, and Montana for half a decade. Her areas of expertise include the CORE Values Program (Character, Optimism, Respect, Ethics) for Teens and Charity Review as well as writing and editing.
Prior to that, she has written for two newspapers, a local magazine, and taught English at the community college. She is the proud author of a short story in ZYZZYVA literary magazine and has had good luck publishing lots of poetry. Each year she rolls up her sleeves and wades into the autumn Nanowrimo writing madness and has several unfinished novels to her credit.
Great job!! I found this while researching to see if it was true and I shared on my facebook. Thank you
Carrie
Report this comment
Same here, wanted to verify and found this page. Passing it on through my FB page….
Report this comment
You’re welcome, Carrie. Good work on the research and passing it on!
Report this comment
Thank you. I hope more people see this. For the last few years I’ve been saying the exact same thing every time someone post an amber alert without verifying it. Also, many local, state and provincial amber alert administrators are also social media, and only post when an amber alert is legit.
Report this comment
I found this while searching to see if the story was true and posted it as well. Thank you.
Report this comment
I shared the post then a friend sent me the notice that it was fake. This is a TERRIBLE thing to play with!! Why would someone jeopardize true amber alerts!!!?? Ugh! Thank you.
Report this comment
What people – too many people – don’t realize is that most Amber Alerts are fake in that they are reports of parents who are taking their own children. Taking their own children back from the abusive custody of child protective services, which is a great place to send a kid if you want them to be abused or murdered. These parents, who are desperate, risk everything in order to try to save their child. Unfortunately, the ignorant public believes that these parents are criminals who must be stopped, so the parents end up getting hunted down with more zeal and firepower than a terrorist would, and have little chance of escaping. Then the parent ends up with a criminal record, probably gets thrown in jail, and the child is sent back to the all-too-often abusive foster warehouse.
Before you dismiss this post, you owe to yourself and your child to do some research on CPS. See how easy it is to lose your child (all it takes is ONE phone call from some nasty person – you’ve NEVER annoyed or made someone jealous, then maybe you don’t have to worry, though CPS workers themselves can call anonymously and have done so, just because they like the look of your child).
Ask yourself why parents who are taking back their children are hunted down as if they are a serial killer, actually they are hunted down as if they are worse than a serial killer. CPS has enormous power, including the power to take a child on the basis of hearsay statements of some silly little social worker who has no children and no life experience. Think twice before you believe what you read.
Report this comment
@Mea Jones
Um… what?
Assuming what you claim is true (by the way, it sounds more like a paranoia-fueled nightmare than anything else), that isn’t entirely CPS to blame, there is also a family court system that parents can and will have to go through with regards to custody disputes. If a CPS worker wants to take your kid because ‘they like their look’ or if it is the work of a grudge informer, there is a process that has to be followed.
For one, to permanently take the kid they need a court order. They can take the kid without one, but if they do so they would have to go through the court system anyways to see if the decision sticks (and provide evidence of the possibility of abuse). Its like when you get a restraining order filed against you: there is the temporary order that is effective until plaintiff and defendant go to court where a judge decides whether or not there is a good reason for it.
There are facts that you get right. Yes, most child abductions are done by parents of the kid. Yes, the foster care system is flawed. However, you make it sound like CPS is running a kid-prostitution ring or its equivalent, and that is a lie.
And we hunt down those parents with more zeal than a terrorist, and it is because many of them had their kids taken away or lost custody to an estranged spouse for good reasons, and now the kid might be abused or killed by this desperate parent.
Sure, mistakes are made, but even you have to understand that there are people that are unfit parents, and that is why the CPS exists.
To further refute your claim, of the majority of cases when its a parent abducting the child, it was from their ex, not from the state or a foster home. So “most amber alerts” being from parents taking their kids out of a foster home is untrue.
Yes, what happened in New York State is horrible, but a parent taking their kid out of a foster home isn’t that common.
I’m sorry, the alerts from the government are real.
Report this comment
I am very skeptical of everything which I see on the Internet (especially when it is not linked to a reputable source). I would never forward what is essentially a picture which is woefully short on facts.
My response:
This report seems suspect because it is incomplete and it would be very difficult to research. It says nothing about:
A) City and / or State where event allegedly occurred
B) Date the alleged event occurred. This could be a very old post which has made its way around the Internet several times. There is no way to tell because there is no date for frame of reference.
C) Child’s name / description / clothes
D) Contact person / phone number with the police
These are all important missing pieces which no parent nor police officer would neglect sharing. There’s no way to determine when the alleged amber alert was issued nor whether it should still be in effect.
Report this comment
Miko, apparently some people think that “innocent until proven guilty” means *nothing* should be done to protect an abuse victim until after the abuser is found guilty.
Report this comment
Miko, any chance you work for CPS? It’s been reported time and again that they are corrupt beyond repair, and take children all day long from good parents, them send them to foster warehousing to get abused or murdered.
Report this comment