Fake News: Great white Sharks NOT Found In Illinois River

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk

Prank website react365.com published a fake article on March 29th 2017 titled "Morris, IL- Great white sharks found in Illinois River". It opens:

While it is not entirely impossible, it is incredibly uncommon for salt water dwelling creatures to stay for lengthy periods of time in fresh water. However, two Great White Sharks have managed to survive the trip and make their way up the Mississippi River and in to the Illinois River somehow.

sharks.jpg

First clue the story is not true: the photo that goes with the article doesn't show great white sharks and it doesn't show the Illinois River. According to Snopes:

The photograph has been circulating since at least 2008, when it was posted to Flickr along with the caption "Bull Shark - Rio Sirena River Mouth." It would be much more likely to spot a bull shark in the Sirena River (which is located in Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica) than a great white shark in the Mississippi River near St. Louis.

Snopes had researched the photo as part of an article debunking a similar hoax from the same site from October 26 2016 that claimed the sharks were spotted in the Mississippi River near St. Louis.

React365 is a prank website where users can submit their own headline, description and photo to create realistic looking prank news articles.

react365.jpg

Users don't even need to upload their own image, there is a built-in search function that will pull an appropriate image from Google image search.

It seems somebody just recycled the same hoax from a few months ago and changed a few details. It seems to be working as the new version of the story is being shared around widely as you can see in the Trendolizer graph at the end of this article. If you notice anyone spreading the hoax around you can help by pointing them to this article here because nobody likes being fooled by fake news.

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization EFCSN Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


WhatsApp Tipline

Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp!

Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone:

@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion