A man has taken to Reddit to share a chilling warning against calling the phone number mentioned in a ‘missing person’ poster. The person suggested that there is a possibility that the poster was made by someone who meant to hurt the missing person.

“If you’ve seen a “Missing person” poster and you have info about the missing person, don’t report it to any phone number/person mentioned in the poster, always contacted the authorities,” the Reddit post reads. “You don’t know if the poster was made by a stalker or someone who is intending to hurt the missing person.”

Netizens say, ‘Not a bad tip’

In the comment section, many Reddit users acknowledged that it was a good tip. Some even narrated scary incidents that have happened with them.

“This actually happened to my wife and I. We were fostering a young boy while the bio family had made physical posters and Facebook posts about how he was kidnapped and such. Their posts on fb got like 160k plus shares and was on the local news stations and radio. We literally had to go into “lock down” for a few days to lay low. Was definitely an intense few weeks!” one user wrote. Another said, “Not a bad tip. I worked in a shelter for years and people would call around looking for someone. We were trained to never answer these types of questions. I’ve met people trying to get away from every type of “loved one” and most types of evil. They don’t let go easy and will try everything to regain control.” “Had an abusive ex boyfriend call and tried to report someone as suicidal. Story didn’t add up and we located her safe and sound. Basically the ex was trying to get us to find her since she moved away from him. So yes this happens. May not be obvious but most people don’t realize the lengths abusive men and women will go to terrorize their victims,” one user wrote.

One user noted that human traffickers could do this as well if their victims manage to escape. “They often pose as concerned relatives but fully intend to revictimize them. And as others have said in other comments, people escaping abusive family/partners/stalkers need protection. But those people are really good at faking concern and worry; don’t fall for it,” the user wrote. Another user admitted that such a scenario never crossed their mind. “Thank you so much for this! This never crossed my mind that any poster could be fake or made with bad intentions,” they wrote.