Locals are being warned to avoid a Facebook scam which uses an image of a 'missing' teenager to steal their personal information.

Hannah Green, 14, has reportedly gone 'missing' from Norfolk - except she never did and the post only exists to help scammers steal data.

Norfolk County Council Trading Standards is warning people of the phishing link scam which claims the fictional girl "discreetly arranged a meeting with an individual she encountered online".

An example of the Hannah Green scam set up posted in a Norwich Facebook group  (Image: Facebook)

Descriptions include sentiments purposefully designed to take advantage of the user's empathy such as "everyone plays a role in bringing her home safe" and "missing at such a young age... tragic".

The phoney links can be found across various Norfolk Facebook groups - from Norwich to north Norfolk - and are posted in quick succession by bots.

The scammer will even disable comments on the post so that those in the know of the scam are unable to warn potential victims.

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A spokesman for Norfolk County Council Trading Standards said: "Fraudsters frequently create posts that appear to be missing person alerts or posts about lost or found pets that are placed into community pages.

"The same post can often be placed onto a large number of pages simultaneously with a link for ‘more information’ and a request to share the post to help locate them or get them home.

"These posts are designed to get people to interact with them thinking they are helping with the issue but in reality, the fraudster will use the links to try and gather personal or financial information with fake login sites or once the post has a high number of shares will change the post to link to survey sites enabling them to gain money.”