The Top 7 Internet Hoaxes of 2017
There has been no shortage of online nonsense spreading in 2017 and it’s fair to say that we’ve been kept on our toes from January through to December.
And as we do each year, we’ve compiled a list of the top Internet hoaxes to spread over the last 12 months based on our own data here at ThatsNonsense.com… so check out the top online hoaxes for 2017 below.
(See here for our 2016 list.)
7. Fabrizio Branbilla – a Facebook hacker?
During the middle of 2017, a series of nonsense hacker warnings circulated virally across social media warning of “Facebook hackers” who were trying to trick victims into accepting a friend request. From there, the hacker could allegedly perform any number of nefarious activities, including hacking your account and computer. One of the more popular of those warnings named the hacker as Fabrizio Branbilla, and accepting him would result in a user being hacked, merely for accepting his friend request.
Such warnings are not new, and have been circulating for years, though occasionally a new name gets attached to the warning and it goes viral one again, and that’s what has happened here, once again. There is no phantom hacker called Fabrizio Branbilla, and accepting a friend on Facebook is not enough to get you hacked (though we certainly don’t recommend adding strangers for privacy reasons!)
We discussed the hoax here.
6. Typing “Facebook Security” shows your paid stalkers?
We were less than a week into 2017 when this rumour began to go viral, and once again it targeted Facebook users. The hoax claimed that Facebook users that headed over to their settings and clicked on the “Blocking” section and then typed “Facebook Security” could reveal a list of “paid stalkers” who were spying on your activity.
The fact that this hoax made literally no sense whatsoever (all users can only see what your privacy settings allow them to, and if someone was spying on you, why would they allow you to see their identities?) the hoax still managed to spread virally, alarming thousands of Facebook users.
In reality this was just a silly scaremongering tale, and not an original one, either. In fact it was a rehash of an earlier hoax that spread in 2014, and that 2014 version was itself a rehash of an even earlier hoax that claimed typing “automation labs” would reveal a list of hackers.
We discussed the hoax here.
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5. Dwayne Johnson dead?
Giving the likes of Morgan Freeman a rest, this popular celebrity death hoax targeted former wrestler Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock. The rumour claimed the actor had died whilst filming a stunt for his latest movie that – according to the rumour – went terribly wrong.
However it was a hoax. Dwayne Johnson is alive and well. We discussed the hoax here.
4. Fake solar eclipse photos
After the total solar eclipse that occurred across the United States in 2017, a number of photos spread virally claiming to show the event. While many of these photos were real, others were not and were either digital works of art or photos from previous eclipses.
In fact many of these fake solar eclipse photos proved so popular on social media that they completely eclipsed (sorry) their genuine counterparts. One such photo (above) showed a creeping light from the sun form a perfect cross behind the moon, and it was shared hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook. However the “photo” was really a 2011 Adobe After Effects digital art creation. See here for the full run down of popular fake eclipse photos.
3. Pepsi worker infected bottles with HIV?
The claim that a rogue Pepsi employee managed to infect bottles of the drink with the HIV virus is part of a family of scarelore hoaxes that have been spreading online for a number of years. Similar variants also targeted Coca Cola and Dr. Pepper, among others.
However an updated version claiming to show a photo of the suspect managed to spread virally in 2017, being shared prolifically on Facebook. That updated version actually showed a photo of Sadiq Ogwuche, a man arrested as a suspect of the Nyanya bombing in Nigeria in 2014. Nothing to do with Pepsi.
The scarelore rumours are nothing more than hoaxes. The HIV virus cannot survive for any meaningful amount of time outside the human body, and transferring it to a fizzy, acidic drink would render the virus useless within seconds. We discussed the Pepsi hoax here.
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2. Typing “Following Me” shows your stalkers in Facebook?
No, it’s not déjà vu. Remember number 6, where a rumour claimed typing “Facebook Security” into the Blocking section of your Facebook settings would display a list of people who were stalking or spying on you?
Well this rumour is essentially exactly the same, only this time you’re supposed to type “Following Me” to see who’s covertly following you.
This rumour went viral in 2017 and was one of the most widely circulated hoaxes this year, despite the hoax making absolutely no sense whatsoever. It fails even the most basic common sense test, and was just the latest addition to a number of very similar hoaxes, including number 6, which itself was based on an earlier 2014 hoax that replaced “Following Me” with “automation labs” as the search text that would apparently reveal a list of stalkers.
To reiterate, typing anything into the Blocking section of your Facebook settings merely displays a seemingly arbitrary list of Facebook users with keywords matching that text you entered. Our full write-up is here.
1. Jayden K Smith Facebook hacker warning
And the winner is… Jayden K Smith. If you didn’t see this particular fake hacker warning spread in July 2017, then you were one of the few. Despite only being particularly active for around a week, this was by far our most popular article for the year and accounts for over 26% of our overall traffic to ThatsNonsense.com!! That’s a lot!
Fabrizio Branbilla wasn’t the only phantom Facebook hacker in 2017. In fact there were dozens of different variants to the age-old “don’t accept this person” niche of nonsense, but Jayden K Smith far outperformed its counterparts and, according to our data, was the most prolific Internet hoax of 2017.
You can read our article on the hoax here.
And that’s it for 2017. We fully expect 2018 to be an equally busy year, but what hoaxes will prove to be the most popular next year, we’ll just have to wait and see!
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