A story is being shared around social media about a boy who was having his photo secretly taken by strangers at The Point shopping mall yesterday afternoon.

Written by the father of the boy, Dr Jan Chircop, the occurrence is described as a "shocking experience".

"Today whilst eating out [in the piazza] at The Point, my wife noticed a stranger randomly taking a photo of our son," he says.

"It gets worse," he states, "at a point, all other three adults at table with me get up (Bathroom, tending to baby, and running off to car for something). I was the only one left at table, admittedly distracted. At that point the women accompanying the man who took the photo gets up, approaches my son and asks him for directions to the bathroom, and then to accompany her," and continues that, "unfortunately he fell for it. [However], Luckily as they were walking across, my wife walked out of the restaurant. She obviously stopped her and told her off. And the woman proceeded to the bathroom."

According to the post, the police made an appearance walking across the Piazza a few minutes later. "As my wife approached them and explained what had just happened, the accompanying man went over to see what it was all about, had it been all innocent, he would have had no idea that it was anything to do with him," he added.  My wife confronted him about the photo, and policed asked to see his phone.It apparently contained photos of many other children."

Dr Chircop says how the police asked the man to delete the photos. "They went back to sit down where they previously were and left after ten minutes," he said. The police have since then contacted Dr Chircop and contacted them for more details.

"I might be wrong, but too many coincidences," he concludes in the post. "Moral of the story, we were lucky, warn your children, keep an eye out, never trust anyone (unfortunately). Share and make aware!"