A missing child alert for 15-year old Daniel Mais went out via a website named "The Daily Gospel" and was still going strong today, being massively shared online. But according to Fox News the boy was already found safe and sound more than a week ago, on March 12, 2018.
That didn't stop The Daily Gospel from publishing an article on March 15, 2018 titled "Boy Has Been Missing For 3 Days, Please 'Share' Now" (archived here) which opened:
A missing child alert was issued Monday for a 15-year-old boy from Volusia County.
According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Daniel Mais was last seen in the 300th block of Ocean Avenue in Port Orange.
He was last seen wearing a green T-shirt with a picture of a kangaroo and the word "Army," black gym shorts and flip-flops.
Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call the FDLE at 1-888-356-4774 or the Port Orange Police Department at 386-527-5653.
He needs your help.
Will you please 'SHARE'?
The post is still up on the site and hasn't been modified. Users on social media who saw this summary probably shared it without giving it a second thought:
Boy Has Been Missing For 3 Days, Please 'Share' Now
A missing child alert was issued Monday for a 15-year-old boy from Volusia County. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Daniel Mais was last seen in the 300th block of Ocean Avenue in Port Orange. He was last seen wearing a green T-shirt with a picture of a kangaroo and the word "Army," black gym shorts and flip-flops.
When you see an alert about a missing person online, always Google their name + the word "missing" first. There is usually a good chance the person has already been found.
It is unclear why The Daily Gospel opted to publish the notice about the missing boy three days *after* he had already been found, but we suspect the 250,000+ interactions on Facebook brought them a quite a nice traffic surge that was just too good to give up on.
