‘New Way Gangs Steal, Rape and Kidnap Girls’ hoax spreads on Facebook

Facebook users are innocently sharing advice with their online friends about how women can avoid being kidnapped and raped, not realising that they are perpetuating a hoax.

Here’s a typical message that is being shared, which comes attached to an image of a young woman gagged and tied up in the trunk of a car.

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

This message is for every Girl Who Goes to college or office alone.If u find any child carrying on road showing his/her address n asking u to take him/her to that address,take that child to police station n plz don’t take it to that address . IT IS A NEW WAY GANGS TO STEAL,RAPE and KIDNAP GIRLS .plz circulate to all .don’t feel shy to copy This as ur status.
OUR ONE MESSAGE MAY SAVE A GIRL

A different version reads:

ATTENTION ALL GIRLS AND LADIES: if you walk from home, school, office or anywhere and you are alone and you come across a little boy crying holding a piece of paper with…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

Found this article interesting? Follow Graham Cluley on Twitter or Mastodon to read more of the exclusive content we post.

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.