Fact check: Claims of missing uncle in multiple locations are a scam

Hannah Hudnall, USA TODAY
·3 min read
1

The claim: Image shows missing uncle and his dog

Social media users are sharing a picture of an elderly man in Facebook groups across the world. They claim the picture shows their missing 80-year-old uncle and his dog.

"URGENT- MISSING! My uncle who is 80 drove out yesterday around 5:30 pm from Timmins," reads part of one Nov. 1 Facebook post. "There is a silver alert activated as well. Please help us get him home safely and quickly as well as their dog Brandi."

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

Comments on the post are disabled.

The post garnered more than 2,000 shares in two days. Nearly identical viral posts claim the man went missing in towns such as Kingsport, Tennessee and Dallas, Georgia.

A spokesperson from the Timmins Police Department said the claims are false. The picture was taken from a man's 2021 GoFundMe page.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment.

Identical posts are a scam

Marc Depatie, a spokesperson for the Timmins Police Department, told USA TODAY over email that the posts are a hoax.

"The Timmins Police Service is aware of this baseless and unfounded posting," Depatie said. "For the record, the man in the post has not been reported to the Timmins Police Service as missing. The motivation for posting such false information is not clear, or genuine, or trustworthy."

The Winfield Police Department, based in Winfield, Kansas, caught wind of the viral post as well and quickly warned users on Facebook.

"You may have seen the post on the left – or one like it – circulating on local Facebook groups," the Nov. 2 post reads. "This post is not accurate, and has been posted to many community pages across the country."

Fact check: Widespread image of injured dog is a hoax

The man pictured in the post appears to be Vern English, who created a GoFundMe in 2021 when, according to the GoFundMe's description, he was on the brink of homelessness. The page includes two pictures of English and his dogs, including the image shared in the viral posts.

A GoFundMe page from August indicates that English recently died and includes additional photos of the man.

Jeffrey Blevins, a misinformation expert, previously told USA TODAY that widely-circulating posts like this contain several red flags indicating they're a scam. The users disable comments so they can't be accused of spreading false information and base the posts on similar, widely-documented events to make them more believable, Blevins explained.

Blevins said the users are typically located outside of the country as well.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that an image shows a missing uncle in multiple locations. A spokesperson from the Timmins Police Department said the claims are false. The picture was taken from a man's GoFundMe from 2021.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Claims of missing uncle in multiple locations are a scam