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Jenny the chihuahua has had a rough couple of months.
In early November she was presumed dead in a hit-and-run in her hometown of Warren, Ohio.
Now, it has become a pawn for scammers, scammers and cheaters who use it to trick Australians out of their money, their data or both.
It’s an increasingly common story, one that takes advantage of the good intentions of a kind-hearted animal lover.
This time it was Jason Cooke, the founder of the Healthy Hearts and Paws animal shelter in Ohio.
After local police called him for a hit-and-run, he took to Facebook.
Jason Cooke, founder of the Ohio animal shelter Healthy Hearts and Paws, thought he was doing the right thing by posting Jenny. (Supplied: Facebook )
“DOG HIT BY CAR!!!” posted on November 5, along with two photos of a seriously injured Jenny.
“I picked up the dog and rushed her to MedVet Girard where her condition is critical…she has no ID and no microchip,” he continued, before providing a link for donations to the animal shelter.
Surprisingly, Jenny came out ahead and Mr. Cooke gave his position no further thought.
That was until he was told that his photos of Jenny had started appearing on community Facebook pages around the world.
An example of one of these scam dog posts that Facebook considers fraudulent. (Supplied: Facebook )
“I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ “This is my photo. It’s on my camera roll,” Cooke told AAP.
“And then I told my friend. She said, ‘Oh yeah, I saw that dog in Kentucky. Someone posted that dog in Kentucky.’”
‘Please delete this post’
Before long, there were dozens of posts featuring Jenny’s image, each telling a similar story of emotional manipulation with a different city or suburb name inserted.
“Desperately searching for this guy’s owner. Found him lying on a side street in Rochester… Please tap this post to help me find his owner!!” reads a typical fraudulent Facebook post using Jenny’s photo taken by Mr. Cooke.
AAP FactCheck, the AAP’s fact-checking arm, has seen hundreds of similar false posts about “injured dogs” on social media in recent months.
When posts are shared enough, scammers change the photos and text to something completely unrelated, like incredibly cheap real estate ads.
Sometimes, edited posts include links to suspicious websites that ask for personal information or credit card details.
The publications seek to exploit “human empathy”
Dan Halpin of Cybertrace, a Sydney-based cyber fraud investigations company, says the injured dog posts are part of a scam known as “clickbaiting”.
He explained that the strategy is to generate large audiences using emotional content.
“This tactic…exploits human empathy, curiosity and trust, which are then manipulated for fraudulent purposes,” he said.
The ACCC says the number of people losing money to Facebook scams is growing. (ABC News)
Injured dog clickbait scams are likely carried out by what he describes as “small-scale operators,” including “low-level copycats.”
Australians are estimated to have lost $80 million to social media scams in 2022, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
How to verify a post
US internet security company Malwarebytes says there are several ways to check the veracity of social media posts about injured animals.
Some tips include:
Paste a segment of the text into Facebook’s search tool to see if the text is duplicated in other posts.
Put the photo of the animal into an online reverse image search like TinEye to see if it has been published before.
Check the author’s profile to see if it looks suspicious.
Disabled comments are also a telltale sign of a scammer
Scams damage genuine help
Cooke said injured dog scams are hindering the work of real animal rescue centers.
“It hurts us, reputable organizations that are trying to provide care to these animals in need, because people may be more hesitant to help,” Cooke said.
But if there is good news, it is that Jenny is happily unaware that she is being used by cybercriminals.
Now that she has been rehoused, she is on the road to recovery and living her best life.
“He’s probably getting more love and attention now than before,” Cooke said.
“So yeah, I’m glad it worked out for you.”
AAP
Jenny was presumed dead in Ohio. Now he’s a pawn of Facebook scammers