False Promotion

Is Feeding America running promotions on Facebook to give away $500 Walmart gift cards or food stamp vouchers to people who will answer four short questions? No, that's not true: Feeding America is a real charity but these promotions are not real. Spoofed pages are using the Feeding America name and logo. Real photos have been altered to bolster the…

Did Elon Musk invent a ground-breaking plug-in device that helps lower electric bills by lowering consumption instantly? No, that's not true: Electrical devices with identical plastic housings have been marketed online for years without mention of Elon Musk ,and there is no evidence this is his invention. Many reports have warned that these purported power-saving devices not only don't do…

Did Elon Musk endorse a remedy called shilajit? No, that's not true: This video clip of Musk speaking at the Ted2022 Conference has been dubbed with a sound-alike clone copy of Musk's voice to make it appear he was touting shilajit, when in fact he was speaking about purchasing Twitter and other topics at the conference. He did not discuss…

Did Elon Musk offer to pay 100 homeowners to test the "newest technology of solar panels"? No, that's not true: This offer that's too good to be true is a ruse to collect personal information and is not associated with Musk or Tesla in any way. Schemes such as this, involving false solar panel installation promotions in order to generate…

Did a YouTube video reveal that Elon Musk bought the search engine giant Google? No, that's not true: The video has a clickbait title, offers no details of a sale and appeared on a YouTube channel that admits its videos are fictional and have no connection to Musk. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has no record that Google, a…

This article lays out the evidence Alan Gray (CEO of alternative news site NewsBlaze) is quite likely the key person behind the anonymously published website named Real Science hosted on the domain name goodsciencing.com. It was recently in the news because it was the source for some spectacular (but wrong) statistics about athletes suffering cardiac arrests (here's our fact…

Did a young engineer named Christian discover a way to make cars more fuel efficient, but get fired from his job after telling his managers? Did he then develop a chip that will calibrate a car's fuel usage? No, that's not true: Much of this video footage was lifted from a YouTube video promoting the University of Huddersfield. The young…

Did Tesla launch a new cryptocurrency that will rapidly turn a £200 ($240) investment into thousands in just days? No, that's not true: This deceptive ad is not associated with Tesla. Although Tesla has invested in cryptocurrency, and Dogecoin can be used to buy some Tesla products, the automotive-energy company owned by Twitter CEO Elon Musk has not created a…

Did a tourist in Northern Ireland record a giant's "door" opening in the mountainside at Giant's Causeway? No, that's not true: This was part of a promotional video made by An Taisce - The National Trust for Ireland, a nongovernmental charity that works to conserve Ireland's national environment and maintain Irish landmarks. An Taisce, translated from Irish (Gaeilge) to English…

Did the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pass "new laws and regulations" to ban sea moss in November 2022? No, that's not true: The FDA does not have the legal authority to either propose or approve legislation, including bans. As a regulatory authority, its role is to enforce laws enacted by Congress. An FDA spokesperson told Lead Stories that the…