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| - A viral rumor circulating on Facebook in early December 2024 claimed a serial killer named "Robert Thibodeau" was attacking people in communities across the U.S. A Snopes reader asked in an email, "Is this a hoax?"
For example, a post (archived) in a buying-and-selling Facebook group in Salem, Oregon, showed a mugshot of a middle-aged man:
The post read as follows:
⚠️Warning⚠️
The public around #Salem 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. 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. If you see him please call the police and be careful. Warn others⚠️
A search of Facebook found dozens of copy-and-paste-style posts displaying the same story and the name "Robert Thibodeau" but for other cities and counties in different states. Some examples of those cities included Lawrence County, Alabama, Las Cruces, New Mexico and Parkersburg, West Virginia, just to name a few.
However, the claim about a serial killer named "Robert Thibodeau" terrorizing the U.S. was a hoax. We located no recent crime reports about a man by the same name, with the exception of an unrelated matter from February 2024. Further, the hoax was part of a bait-and-switch scam.
As for the man in the mugshot, the Louisiana newspaper The Advocate published an article in August 2018 with the same picture. The story identified the man differently and said authorities arrested him on several charges, none involving murder.
The Bait-and-Switch Scam
In the case of the bait-and-switch scam, inauthentic users — or scammers, if you will — created posts in a seemingly countless number of local community Facebook groups. They repurposed the old and unrelated mug shot, falsely claiming the man's name was "Robert Thibodeau." They posted the warning as a way of drumming up likes, comments and shares, all based on seizing on people's fears of a possible serial killer on the loose in their neighborhood.
Once a certain threshold was reached, the scammers edited the posts to mention a completely different matter that might allow them to make money. The strategy by the scammers was that users would see the altered posts and their preexisting likes, comments and shares — some from friends or friends of friends — and then trust whatever the content (the scam) might be.
For example, Snopes reviewed posts changed from the serial killer story to an offer for "free dental care services."
This example shows a scammer's edits to one of the hoax posts.
The new post about dental care services featured a cutt.ly short link directing users to smilehelp.club. The smilehelp.club website led to other websites offering information about obtaining quotes for health insurance, either on acahealthbenefits.org or health.hellogenius.org. None of these websites offered free dental care services.
These two examples display what shares of the serial killer hoax posts looked like after scammers edited the content to promote the "free dental care services."
Tips to Avoid Falling for Bait-and-Switch Scams
In an April 2023 article, WGAL-TV offered helpful tips on how to avoid falling for bait-and-switch scams. The article's author also noted such scams might initially promote "heart-wrenching" tales about an injured or lost pet, or a missing child, all before eventually editing the post to display the scam offer.
The author advised consumers to examine posts and the account of the user who created it before sharing the content to friends and family. Also, the act of performing a reverse-image search on Google can aid "to find out if the pictures you saw were used on other ads or websites in different cities." They also said, "If the post is for a rental property, search the address to see if it's listed on other websites. If it's listed for sale on one website but for rent on another, that's a huge red flag."
The story ended with one final piece of advice: "It's nice to want to help others, but it's not nice to be taken advantage of and be used as part of a scam."
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