Was the home of NSA employee Harry Muff raided by the FBI and did they seize four million "dick pics" that were on his computers? And did he steal these pictures from mobile phones and computers owned by ordinary Americans via the NSA? No, that story is not true: it was made up by a site that regularilly makes up false stories, it was fake news.
It originally appeared on April 14, 2018 on the website World News Daily Report where it was titled "FBI raid at NSA employee's home reveals over 4,000,000 "dick pics"" (archived here). The story opened:
Fort Meade, MD | FBI agents have discovered an astounding 4,000,000 pictures of men's penises, also known as "dick pics", during a raid on an NSA employee's home this week.
Federal prosecutors have charged Harry Muff, an NSA employee for 14 years, with theft of government property and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials.
Muff's home was raided Wednesday by FBI agents who seized 14 computers containing 53 terabytes of illegally downloaded pictures and documents from the National Security Agency.
It is believed Muff used his Top Secret security clearance to illegally download millions of pictures of sexual nature off of unsuspecting Americans mobile phones and computers.
On social media the story would have looked like a regular news article:
FBI raid at NSA employee's home reveals over 4,000,000 "dick pics"
Fort Meade, MD | FBI agents have discovered an astounding 4,000,000 pictures of men's penises, also known as "dick pics", during a raid on an NSA employee's home this week. Federal prosecutors have charged Harry Muff, an NSA employee for 14 years, with theft of government property and unauthorized
But the man in the picture illustrating the story is actually Hung Phuoc Nguyen, a 44-year-old man who was arrested for robbing a market stall and who was identified through possibly the worst police sketch ever:
Worst possible police sketch actually helps ID suspect
Put an APB out for Linus. Despite releasing a ridiculously bad hand-drawn portrait of a suspect, police in Pennsylvania believe they got their man. On Tuesday, the Lancaster Police Department published a description of a person who allegedly posed as an employee of a stand at the Central Market Mall, only to rob the stall and flee with an undisclosed sum of cash, Lancaster Online reports.
The website World News Daily Report is a well known satire website specialized in posting hoaxes and made up stories. The disclaimer on their website is pretty clear about that even though you have to scroll all the way down the page to find it:
World News Daily Report assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website - even those based on real people - are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle.
It is run by Janick Murray-Hall and Olivier Legault, who also run the satirical Journal de Mourréal, a satirical site spoofing the (real) Journal de Montéal. Very often their stories feature an image showing a random crazy mugshot found in a mugshot gallery on the internet or on a stock photo website superimposed over a background of flashing police lights or crime scene tape.
Articles from the site are frequently copied (sometimes even months or years later) by varous fake news websites that omit the satire disclaimer and present the information as real.
We wrote about worldnewsdailyreport.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Man in China Does NOT Face Execution After Rubbing His Penis on Mao Zedong's Corpse
- Fake News: Man Did NOT Contract Flesh-eating Disease After Anal-Oral Contact With Boyfriend With Diarrhea
- Fake News: Panel of Saudi Scientists Did NOT Conclude Europeans Evolved From Pigs
- Fake News: Man Did NOT Get Arm Bitten Off By Pet Shark He Raised In His Bathtub
- Fake News: Child NOT Born In India With 12-inch-long Penis, NOT Venerated As Incarnation Of Ganesh
