BEWARE of ‘lost dog’ Facebook scams, Devon Facebook users have been warned by Heart of the South West Trading Standards.

In their latest Consumer News bulletin, Trading Standards warns: ‘Scam posts about lost dogs – and in some cases even missing children – are circulating on Facebook.

‘They urge us to share the posts, but once shared, the original poster can go in and edit the post to say something different, such as advertising a scam.

‘Seeing you've shared it on your profile, your friends may think it's trustworthy and click it.

‘One way to spot these scams is to click on the original poster's profile – signs it’s a con include the profile being recently set up, the person living far away and not having many friends.

'If you're not sure, don't share the post.’

A spokesperson from Meta (Facebook) added: “We’re sorry to hear people are being misled in this way.

"We work closely with Stop Scams UK to help victims and remove scams at the source.”

Meta also said they work closely with law enforcement to support investigations and keep scammers off their platforms.

The spokesperson for Meta added: "We continue to invest in heavily new technologies and spent approximately $5 billion (around 4 Billion pounds) last year alone on safety and security.

"We also have over 40,000 people to do one job: keep people safe across our platforms."

Meta said they actively encourage people to report activity like this to them and the police so action can be taken, against scammers.

to learn more about cyber fraud scams and how to report them visit: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/a-z-of-fraud-category/cyber-fraud or https://stopscamsuk.org.uk/