CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – A new scam on social media is targeting people by using fake posts about missing children or pets.

The posts have been popping up in community Facebook groups across the Lowcountry.

Kimberly Kite, a former law enforcement investigator, said she’s frustrated the posts are targeting people’s emotions to take advantage of them.

“It’s just kind of out of control,” Kite said.

Kite first saw the posts a few weeks ago — they included users asking for help and showed pictures of people or pets that aren’t actually missing.

But she said it was a fake post in a Summerville Facebook group that drew the line.

“One that they used as ‘currently missing,’ he was 16 years old and remains found in Arizona so that’s what really got to me,” Kite said.

Kite now helps families through the Missing in South Carolina Facebook page. She said the scam hits close to home.

“You have so many people whose hearts are there with the missing or missing animals so there is nothing they wouldn’t do,” she said.

Kite worries the posts may impact the families of children who are actually missing.

“Just trying to verify if it’s a legit missing person takes 20-30 minutes — sometimes longer,” she said. “So that takes away from an actual really missing person.”

Chris Hadley, President/CEO of the BBB serving central South Carolina & Charleston, said scammers will use posts like Kite described to get personal information.

“It’s a very profitable business for criminals,” he said.

He said that’s why it is important to stay vigilant online.

“Whatever you’re clicking on, whatever you’re sharing on any of those social platforms, you could be opening yourself up to have all that information all of your data harvested,” said Hadley.

Kite hopes bringing attention to the scam will lead to more oversight on Facebook.

“I know it’s difficult to run a page with 8,000 people,” said Kite. “But I do it with one admin on 28,000 — so you just have to monitor it and hopefully we can put a stop to it.”

She said some red flags with the posts are they often have comments disabled, and they will include vague information along with the picture.

Kite encourages others to report the posts to Facebook.