SOUTH BEND Ind. - Facebook scammers are trying to convince the public that a police officer from the South Bend Police Department is missing. SBPD does not have any police officers missing and there are no Silver Alerts issued for one of their officers.

"It's really just a continuation of a scam that's been going on for years and years, but it's just the actors and the details are a little different. So we've seen previously that scammers will post pictures of alleged missing children or alleged Found Pets, found children, but really, there's some stuff there that doesn't quite add up," SBPD Director of Communications Ashley O'Chap said.

The posts have been across Facebook with fake names, locations and photos.

"So, what we're seeing on Facebook, a couple people have flagged it to our attention, is that there is a scam post going around saying that a South Bend Police officer is missing. They give some information about a female police officer, say that something about her child was in the car," O'Chap said.

"And once you share that information and it gets a lot of traction, they'll typically change the contents of the post to some sort of scam post, a scam real estate, real estate listing, something like that. So, they're really just trying to tug at your heart strings. They want to try to prey on people who are trying to do the right thing, to help find somebody, or to locate, you know, a missing child, person officer in this case, and it's just it's not true."

If you are unsure about the validity of a post, check the profile of the person who created the post and the local law enforcement agency's social media pages to see if it came from there. If a post seems suspicious, do not click any links. 

"The post is shared in a local garage sale group," SBPD said.

"As a police department, we aren't sharing information about missing/abducted people in your neighborhood swap meet groups. We are publishing the information via our official social media channels AND sharing with local media outlets."