Nails in pieces of cheese left at dog parks? A Facebook scare ignites

If you want a rumour to go into overdrive, then Facebook is the place to kick things off.

A message is being shared widely between Facebook users, telling dog owners to be careful if they take their pet to the park – as there might be pieces of cheese lying around containing nails.

New trend at dog parks, nails in pieces of cheese, if you take your dogs to dog parks, please be careful!!

Some messages also refer to anti-freeze being antifreeze found in dogs’ water bowls.

As a dog owner myself, the warning strikes a chill in my heart – and I can well understand why animal-loving Facebook users have shared it thousands of times. But the lack of any further information rings an alarm bell in my mind.

Is this a legitimate warning, or is it a hoax? After all, the warning doesn’t say *where* in the world or *when* this has happened, and doesn’t include any links where dog owners can find out any more information.

Here’s what the real skinny is…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.