This week, I am taking a look at two fictional characters formed by the collective unconscious of the web. The primary is “Robert Thibodeau,” a serial killer terrorizing Fb so laborious that individuals have to share his picture. The second is Elon Man, the heroic, fictional model of Elon Musk whose daring deeds are recounted nightly across the digital campfire of the social feeds of kin you blocked years in the past.
Meet Fb’s serial killer
Breathless Fb customers from everywhere in the nation are reporting {that a} serial killer is on the free. In accordance with the studies, Robert Thibodeau, 52, has claimed victims in South Florida; Salem, Massachusetts; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and dozens of different communities. Irrespective of the place he goes, Thibodeau’s strategies are the identical. In accordance with the posts:
This man goes round knocking on peoples’ doorways claiming to be homeless, and in search of assist, & he assaults you after gaining your belief. He is ruthless and really harmful. On Thursday, he attacked a 37-year-old single mother with a knife and left her struggling for her life…he additionally stole a automobile from an 83-year-old grandmother below the guise of serving to her offload groceries from her automotive. For those who see him, please name the police and watch out. Warn others.
There’s even an image of him, as you possibly can see above. I’ve anonymized it, as a result of, as you in all probability guessed, there is not actually a serial killer named Robert Thibodeau attacking our nation’s 37-year-old single moms and stealing each 83-year-old grandmother’s Gran Torino. The man within the image is not named Thibodeau and he hasn’t attacked anybody with a knife ,so far as we all know. (He is allegedly extra into hiding cameras in girls’s restrooms). The entire thing is an elaborate bait-and-switch scheme.
The actual crimes on Fb
Over the previous few days, anonymous scammers have been infiltrating lots of of native Fb teams and posting a mugshot of an unrelated man and calling him a serial killer. The thought is to get folks to interact with the submit, to remark, like and share it. As soon as it has risen within the algorithmic rankings, the scammers change the image to a hyperlink to some scammy factor or one other—a survey the place you may get free cash, a gross sales pitch, a suggestion of “free dental providers”—however the true objective is to get private info customers may quit.
It is not a brand new sort of on-line rip-off, however in keeping with the Higher Enterprise Bureau, bait-and-switch social media schemes are on the rise, they usually particularly goal native teams on social media. The pretend posts fluctuate in subject material. Typically they’re a few misplaced canine that was hit by a automotive and might solely be reunited with its household if you happen to share the submit; generally it is a lacking youngster; and generally it is a serial killer. The frequent thread is that these are all extremely emotional topics, designed to get folks to hit “share” with out consulting their brains, or taking 5 seconds to look into whether or not it is truly true. As Sheriff Shannon Beasley in Tipton County, Tennessee places it, “You may virtually relaxation assured if somebody this violent is on the free you can see this info on our web page.” (Nearly?)
One easy trick to defeat Fb scammers
Jeffrey Blevins, a professor on the College of Cincinnati who focuses on misinformation, advises you to cross-check Fb claims with one other supply. Cybersecurity skilled David Derigiotis says you need to take a look at the profile of the one that posts one thing suspicious to see in the event that they’re missing connections to different Fb customers. The Higher Enterprise Bureau suggests you do a reverse picture search on Google for photographs you suppose are pretend. However these are all half measures. For those who actually cannot acknowledge scams on Fb with out doing a reverse picture search, you need to delete your Fb; they’ll journey you up ultimately. Even if you happen to do not fall for scams, you need to delete Fb, simply because.
The additional adventures of Elon Man
Just a few weeks in the past, I went deep into the fictional model of Elon Musk that AI created in order that dumb folks would have YouTube movies to look at. Elon Man is an American people hero who spends his time altering the lives of waitresses at Waffle Home and saving schoolkids from bullies. Listed below are solely a few of his current adventures:
Musk is not only a hero—he is a super-villain, too. As a result of I’m even-handed, listed here are a few of the dastardly deeds of Bizarro Elon Man, supervillain of the liberals.