tinsleyNET | Fake News

Don’t Feed The Beast : Coronavirus Misinformation & Frauds

March 30, 2020March 30, 2020 tinsleyNET Admin

The government has announced a rapid response unit of specialists to identify false, misleading and misinformed posts regarding the Covid-19 coronavirus.

Made up of experts from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and from the technology sector, they’re working to combat fake news and fraudulent activity on social media platforms.

Fake News

The government is worried that the amount of fake news or ‘false narratives’ circulating around the Covid-19 outbreak, is dangerous and could obscure the actual factual advice given by the NHS.

The unit has already been tackling upto 70 serious incidents a week with purported experts making dangerous claims that could mislead people into thinking a dangerous activity was safe to do, or that the level of severity has been overestimated.

Fraudsters

Along with the fake news are the fraudsters, ready to take advantage of the ongoing epidemic. We’ve listed some of the frauds we’ve seen or heard about on our other blog post here: Coronavirus Scams. We’ll keep that post updated with relevant information.

The public can help stop the spread of potentially dangerous or false stories circulating online by following official government guidance – the ‘SHARE’ checklist. This includes basic but essential advice such as checking the source of a story and analysing the facts before sharing.
Government Release
SHARE Checklist

There are a number of online resources that will help you spot fake news and frauds, but the best resource you have is you, follow the governments SHARE initiative and think before you click.

Source – make sure information comes from a trusted source
Headline – always read beyond the headline
Analyse – check the facts
Retouched – does the image or video look as though it has been doctored?
Error – look out for bad grammar and spelling

Some websites that help fact check articles and debunk the fakes and frauds:

Email Us

Phone Us

Truth or Fiction?

March 27, 2019June 13, 2019 tinsleyNET Admin

The golden age of the internet news is over! The amount of fake news is outpacing fact based news, and being able to filter out what’s real and what is fake is getting more difficult. No longer are the fake posts and emails littered with bad English and obvious fake links, it’s now almost impossible to spot as it’s delivered with the same quality and backing as genuine news.

We’ve listed below some of the best fact-checking websites available.

Fraudsters see major incidents as an opportunity to take advantage of you

Fraudsters Don’t See Tragedy, They See Opportunity

After any major incident, many people turn to the internet to find out more information and to see if there is any way in which they can help. The majority of us will be shocked by tragic events as we see them unfold, more so when the incident is closer to home.

Unfortunately, the fraudsters know this, and don’t look at these events with sympathy, but look at them as an opportunity to scam people. Make it second nature to verify the sources of information you share, think before you click.

Scams

Scams that crop up after an incident can vary and take on many forms. They can be from people just out to harvest ‘likes’ by creating and sharing memes or making up stories about fictitious people ‘who were there’ when it happened, or they can be criminals out to pinch your bank details.

Often, the fraudsters will use social media to share a photo with a sentimental message or outraged caption, and will use any tactics then can to pull on your heart strings to get you to forward or re-share the post.

Expect them to exploit photos of affected people and paint sad stories to get you to hand over your money.

Who To Trust

Use some common sense when deciding if a link you’re about to click is genuine.

If the link came via email or instant messenger, check with the email sender that they intended to send it, they many not be aware if their account has been compromised.
- This is doubly important if the email or message says something along the lines of “I’ve changed my bank details” – double check in person or over the phone. This is a common and well known scam.
Fake News is a massive problem at the moment and unlikely to go away, websites like Metafact, Full Fact and Redaction Watch are just a few that can help you identify fake news. (Read more about these sites here)
Check the validity of any links before you click them, it may say www.TrustWorthyWebsite.com in the text, but hover your mouse over it to find out where it’s really linked to first.
- In a recent post, we listed some websites that have been setup to identify and correct either mistakenly made claims or outright fake news.
  https://tinsleynet.co.uk/2019/truth-or-fiction/
If a URL shortener has been used, (the link looks like sh.ort/Wg5SDS or something similar) check the full-length URL on the shortner website used, or use a trusted third-party website like www.checkshorturl.com
Check with someone in authority. If a Just Giving page has been setup by Bob claiming that he’s raising money for the recent incident, how can you be sure your donation is going where he says? Just because he mentions various valid aid organisations in the link does not mean they endorse him or have any connection to him.
Seen a photo of a young child with a caption “This person is missing, please share this link to help find her” – think…
How is sharing this link going to help find someone?
Is it at all likely that the missing person or someone they know is reading Social Media?
Can you be sure that person is really missing? is there a police reference number?
Check the facts first!
Look at the date when the first share was made, was it recently or several months ago?
Is the source of the information genuine and trustworthy? Just because someone says that ‘The Police have asked…’ doesn’t mean it’s true. If it is true then there should be a link back to an official page with verifiable details. Don’t take someone else’s word as fact without checking it first.

#WeCanHelp

We can help you sort the truth from the lies, and show you how to identify fraudulent emails and links. We can even configure and install hardware designed to filter out the fake news.