NEWS RELEASE
TIMMINS POLICE SERVICE
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The Timmins Police Service is issuing a public advisory in regards to an internet-based fictitious report of an alleged kidnapping occurrence involving a 5-year-old girl from Timmins.
The Timmins Police Service wishes to report that there is no substance or legitimacy to any of the content of these postings that are currently circulating on social media platforms.
In this instance, it appears that when persons are asked to verify their age on the video portion of the posting, the viewer is asked to log back into their social media platform.
The Timmins Police Service strongly urges against participating in this sort of activity in any way as it is likely a fraudulent attempt to gain access to your account by means of phishing.
The matter is currently under review by the Timmins Police Service – Criminal Investigations Division.
This serves as a glaring example of the lack of authenticity of certain items that are posted on social media and held out as legitimate where in fact, no factual substance applies.
As always, the Timmins Police Service recommends that, depending on the legitimacy of the source, to monitor any items posted on the internet with a speculative point of view.
Quite often, these postings are sensational, spurious, and intended to inspire anxiety, or form part of a fraudulent undertaking.
Verifying source legitimacy is the key to receiving factual information online.
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