What is a Bait & Switch post?
These are posts designed to pull at the heart strings to encourage you to share. They are often of injured dogs, senior who are lost and so on. They will tell you they are looking for the dog owner or the families. What kind-hearted person could resist to share and help! They will even mention the town you are from to make it seem more legit.
Here is an example.
But STOP and check some items first.
Have they turned off commenting? If they genuinely want to help why turn that off? This is the easiest item to check and the biggest clue!
Is the post being shared by a Page? This is often a business account and listed as something like a realtor. (Yes, Winnipeg Lost Dog Alert is a page, but we do not turn off commenting on a post we want to be shared.)
Is it a new Facebook Account?
Once they have enough shares of the post, THEY CHANGE IT. I have personally seen them change it to advertising a house for sale or rent.
You could be advertising (and therefore endorsing?) any kind of product they are trying to sell. We have also had people tell us that if they inquire (they HAVE to personally message) about a property, that the person they contact tries to extract personal information from them. For example, name, address, SIN#, etc. They also now have a link to your personal account.
Winnipeg Lost Dog Alert LOVES that you share our posts. You REALLY help to get dogs home and it breaks our hearts that these unscrupulous “businesses” (or scammers) are using the dog-loving community to their own ends.