Hoax posts falsely warn of US serial killer at large
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"The public around #Flint is being warned to be alert & vigilant as there is a serial killer on the run. This man goes around knocking on peoples' doors claiming to be homeless, seeking help & he attacks you after gaining your trust," says a December 6, 2024 Facebook post.
"He's ruthless and very dangerous. On Thursday, he attacked a 37 year old single mom with a knife and left her struggling for her life. Known as Robert Thibodeau aged 52 years, also stole a vehicle from an 83-year-old grandmother under the guise of helping her offload groceries from her car."
Nearly identical posts spread across Facebook and Instagram, using the same image and changing the location to cities in US states such as Massachusetts, Ohio, Georgia and Arkansas.
Other posts use similar language with the image and name of another person: Don McDougal.
The posts follow a pattern in which social media accounts incite fear based on false claims. AFP has traced similar posts to accounts in Zimbabwe that target local Facebook groups in North America to obtain users' personal information.
The poster will prohibit comments, preventing people from warning others about the hoax. After receiving multiple shares, some of the posts are then modified to advertise unrelated links, such as dental services.
The edit histories of the latest posts reveal they too have been updated.
Multiple police departments across the United States have also refuted the claims.
"THIS IS A FALSE STORY AROUND HERE. We are kindly asking the public to stop & think before sharing information that is false," the McHenry, Illinois Police Department said in a December 16 Facebook post (archived here).
"There is no serial killer on the loose in McHenry and there is no threat to the area."
Similarly, the police department in Odessa, Texas posted that claims about Robert Thibodeau "are intended to cause unwarranted public harm and have been determined to be false" (archived here).
A reverse image search showed the picture of the man supposedly named Robert Thibodeau is from a Louisiana newspaper article (archived here) about a different individual arrested on unrelated charges in 2018.
The other picture does show a man named Don McDougal (archived here) who is facing a possible death penalty in the killing of an 11-year-old girl.
A spokesperson for the Polk County Sheriff's Office in Livingston, Texas said in a December 17 email that McDougal "is still incarcerated in our facility."
AFP has debunked similar scam posts with purported urgent messages here.
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