A report of a white van in the neighbourhood following young girls in Largs Main Street appeared on the Largs People facebook site on Monday, and police were also informed.

And while Sergeant Les Stewart of Largs Police confirmed that one call was made to police in relation to the issue, he has raised concerns that people are generally too quick to inform Facebook, and their friends, before actually alerting police.

He said: “We received a report of a white van in the area, but there was no registration number given, and only one phone call. We went on patrol and checked matters out, and came across nothing.

“The information we were given was very vague. Speculation on these incidents on Facebook can cause chaos - there was only one report given to us, the rest was made up by these Facebook people. A lot of the the time we become aware of something, it is far, far too late, and it has already been on Facebook. People phone their pals first after it has just happened, rather than contacing the police. It is pretty crazy.

“The one phone call we received was that it was a white van - but that is pretty vague, there are hundreds of them.”