False information posts on Evansville area groups on Facebook are on the rise.

You've heard it said a million times, "Don't believe everything you see on social media." The problem with that is that people don't take the time to look up the validity of posts they see on social media. They see something online and immediately share it. We've seen plenty of these ranging from scams, "fake news", and other types of posts online. However, it seems like lately in the Evansville area, there have been posts circulating that are completely false and spreading fear and propaganda all over the area.

False Socal Media Posts in the Evansville Area

I don't know about you, but I have been seeing a lot of posts being shared on Facebook from local buy, sale, and trade groups. These posts involve some kind of security or mugshot saying that someone has done something very bad in the area and to keep a lookout for the person in the photos. I saw three of these posts just today.

The first post I saw today came from owensboro tell city evansville for sale. The post itself reads:

Watch out for this man, he's going around door to door in TELL CITY, asking for money as he is saying he's locked out of his house. Canadian accent also writting details down. House he was claiming was his, wasn't. If you dont give him the money, he will attack you. He attacked 3 home-alone teens last night with a knife and now wanted by the police for several crimes. If he knocks on your door, please call 911. WARN OTHERS
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The post comes from someone who doesn't even live in the area. The comments had been turned off, and several people shared this before it was deleted.

Another post that I saw today had been shared twice. The first time it was shared, it was in the group Evansville NORTHSIDE online Sales. Then, later in the day, it was also shared in the Evansville Sell, Buy, Trade group. The post was shared by two different people, neither of which are from Evansville. Both posts contain the same caption:

<p>Community alert</p><p>This woman impersonated herself as a nurse and stole a 2day old baby boy from a local hospital in Evansville. She was caught on camera and is on the loose, if anyone sees her please report this to your nearest police station and please share this post so we help the 27year old first-time mother in reuniting with her son!</p>
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Again, commenting for these posts was turned off, but the post was shared several times. The funny thing about this post is that after doing a quick Google Image search, I discovered that the exact same post was shared in a group in the state of Washington.

Fake News!

We have heard that term a lot in the past few years, and these posts are prime examples of fake news. These are just a few examples of posts on Facebook with false information that are intended to strike fear in local residents. If they were real, these claims would be shared on other reliable local pages like in the news or police department news releases. The fact that there's no mention of posts like this in any other outlet lets you know that they are bogus stories.

Facebook users are warned to avoid interacting with the false post as it may be a scammer targeting vulnerable accounts. Before sharing any kind of post like this, always check the user account to check the validity of the person who posted it. Better yet, check your local news sites to see if these claims are real or not. Nine times out of ten, posts like this that come from groups with people who aren't even from the area are not real. If you do see these fake news posts, you can also report them on Facebook.

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