KZN police warn of falsely reporting missing persons
Falsely reporting a person as missing is a criminal offence.
That's the warning from the South African Police Service amid a rise in fake missing persons posts on social media.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Robert Netshiunda says sharing such posts could also land you in hot water.
"Such acts defeat the efforts that police put in finding people who are genuinely missing. Before circulating and sharing any missing person poster on social media, residents are urged to verify information with the police."
Missing Children SA is also warning people to be wary as some of the fake posts usually contain links through which scammers hack into people's social media accounts.
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The organisation's Bianca van Aswegen says the fraudsters use images of people who were previously missing or were never missing at all.
"Due to this, people's social media are being hacked. We are people to please do not share these posts, rather verify them with Saps or us, as an organisation, to make sure it is a verified case and it is also a South African case because many of these cases are also from overseas and those children have been found."
Van Aswegen says false reports end up wasting precious time and resources.
"If you do have a missing person case, please open a case at your nearest police station. Do not wait—there is no waiting time in reporting a missing person or child. Contact us at Missing Children SA for assistance."
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