Residents of Pittsfield and beyond are being urged by local authorities to be vigilant about the content they circulate online, particularly concerning reports of missing persons. The Pittsfield Police Department has taken to social media to condemn the sharing of illegitimate missing persons posts, emanating largely from a Facebook page named Pittsfield's Buy, Sell Trade and Free. The department states that the majority of these supposed missing person cases are falsely reported on the website, and in a statement obtained by the Pittsfield Police Department's official Facebook page, they announced, "PLEASE STOP THE SHARING OF THESE POSTS!!"
According to the police department, these spam accounts frequently deploy images stolen from various online sources. Often, the photographs used are of individuals who were previously reported missing from other jurisdictions and have since been found. Adding to the manipulative nature of these posts, the department highlighted that one of the misrepresented images was of a child previously kidnapped and safely recovered. In a saddening misuse of public empathy, her widely circulated image became a tool for scammers to exploit those willing to spread the word of a fabricated missing person.
In a particularly egregious case, a post circulated claiming that NYPD Officer Johnathan Diller was missing. However, accessible public records easily debunk this claim, as the officer tragically lost his life in the line of duty on March 25. The Pittsfield Police Department's message was clear as it emphasized the responsibility within the community to curtail the spread of misinformation by reporting misleading posts. "A simple Internet search would have immediately shown you it was spam."
