The Isle of Man’s Cyber Security Centre has issued a warning following an online scam which went viral this morning.

A Facebook account named ‘Jordan Beardshaw’ posted to the ‘stuff for sale/swap peel and the West Isle of Man’ claiming an autistic child called Brandan Cooper had gone missing.

The post claimed the ‘child’ had been reported missing to police and needed urgent medication, but it was quickly established that the post is fake and is often circulated worldwide by scammers.

The Cyber Security Centre commented: ‘We are aware of a scam claiming there is a missing child in Peel. This post is fake and is a scam used globally across Facebook.

‘Remember, Facebook is not a reliable source of information - do your research before believing posts from strangers.

‘Admins should consider adding controls to groups in order to minimise the number of scam posts.

‘Look for the signs, such as a new profile, the comments being turned off or there being no contact information, and report suspected scam posts to admins as soon as you see them.’