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Local disabled child's picture stolen, circulating Facebook
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AMITE - We see Facebook posts every day encouraging users to "like" "share" or "comment." Most of the time the posts are harmless. Other times they are scams.
When Katie Corken was scrolling through her Facebook timeline, she discovered a photo of her son circulating without her permission. The stolen photo had thousands of "likes" with the caption "Nobdy cared to pray for Farnando. Can he even get 1 like, amen and share."
"At first, when I saw it, I laughed to myself," Corken said. "I was like: 'is this a joke? Farnando?'"
Corken said her son, who's name is Conner, has schizencephaly and the picture was taken five years ago while he was undergoing medical treatment.
It's called "like farming," where sketchy Facebook pages often steal and repurpose content to grow an audience. These posts can include links to crowdfunding websites used to scam good intentioned Facebook users.
Corken says she contacted the owner of the page who shared the photo. She asked how much it would cost to buy the page.
"They told me to name a number," Corken said.
The problem has been reported to Facebook, but Corken wants other Facebook users to keep her case in mind the next time they decide to share a post.
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