Does a man born in a specific town need help spreading a post about his search to find his birth mother who played the organ at a Nazarene church? No, that's not true: This false narrative is yet another instance of a spammer's ruse to trick people into sharing a post. After the post is shared it is typically edited to become something else, such as a rent-to-own real estate ad or a scam purporting to offer a Go2Bank sign-up bonus. New posts containing the same "search for birth mother" narrative have the name of the man's birthplace changed to match the location of the Facebook group audience. Some posts feature different photos, or the name Michael or Todd.
An example of one of these posts was published on April 8, 2023, by the Facebook account of Christopher Chakara into the Facebook group serving a community in Delaware called Millsboro and Surrounding Areas Online Yardsale. The post was captioned:
Hi everyone. My name is Michael and I am looking for my birth mother and any siblings. I was born March 18, 1969 in Millsboro , that is also where I was adopted. Only thing I know about my mother is she played the organ at a Nazarene Church. I would appreciate it if you would share this post, please kindly help me locate my family.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Apr 12 15:34:21 2023 UTC)
The post is written in the first person, but Christopher Chakara, who is from Harare, Zimbabwe, is not the man in the post photo -- introduced in the caption as Michael, born in Millsboro, Delaware. Lead Stories has documented that many of these posts are made by otherwise dormant Facebook accounts of Zimbabwean people. These accounts may have been hacked and there is no indication that Chakara is personally involved with this posting. A reverse image search for the photo of the adult man in the post points to the LinkedIn profile (archived here) of Stefen Wynn, the former city manager of Neptune Beach, Florida -- not a person named Michael.
A post made on April 12, 2023 (below left), was posted by a Facebook page named Susan Rudland, with the page created one day earlier, on April 11, 2023. The post was made in the Polk Co Arkansas Yard Sales group and featured the same photos as Chakara's post in the Delaware group. In this case, "Susan Rudland" posts on behalf of her husband Todd:
My husband Todd is looking for his birth mother and any siblings. He was born March 18, 1969 in Polk County and that is also where he was adopted. The only thing he knows about his mother is she played the organ at a Nazarene Church. Kindly find it in your heart to help my husband locate his family by sharing this post. Thank you
Another post made in the group Garage Sales in Centerville on April 12, 2023, uses a different photo (below right) to represent the child. It was posted by the Facebook page Anika F. Padgett, and is captioned:
[ON BEHALF OF A FRIEND PLEASE BUMP]
Hi everyone. My name is Michael and I am looking for my birth mother and any siblings. I was born March 18, 1969 in Centreville that is also where I was adopted. Only thing I know about my Mother is she played the organ at a Nazarene Church. I would appreciate it if you would share this post, please kindly help me locate my family..
(Source: Lead Stories composite image with Facebook screenshots taken on Wed Apr 12 15:34:21 2023 UTC)
In virtually all cases the commenting is turned off. This prevents group members from alerting others about the deceptive nature of the post. A Facebook user can view the edit history of a post by clicking on the three dots in the upper right corner of a post. The composite image below shows the edit history of three posts that originally featured a narrative about searching for a birth mother and have now been edited to be about something else.
(Source: Lead Stories composite image with Facebook screenshots taken on Wed Apr 12 15:34:21 2023 UTC)
Two of these posts use the names of real companies as a lure in a fake scheme. Lead Stories has previously debunked the scam (above left) that uses the name of Go2Bank and a false promise of a $1,000 sign-up bonus -- there is no such bonus. The post in the middle image features a scam using the name of a real survey company, Pinecone Research, but it links to a GoDaddy site. A fraud warning on pineconeresearch.com says in part:
One example of such a scam is a 'mystery shopping' assignment. Essentially, the victim is provided a fake check and advised to cash it, and then use some of the proceeds to test a service (for example, testing a Western Union wire transfer). The victim is advised that he or she may retain the balance from the cashed check as payment, however, the check later bounces. Other examples include recruiting for 'business evaluation surveys' or 'hiring' employees.
The post featured on the right (in the image above) is a fake rent-to-own advertisement. The April 8, 2023, post, originally featuring "Michael" on a search for his birth mother in Dallas, Oregon, was posted in a group Events around Dallas Oregon by a page called Jerry J. Olmos. The post was edited the next day to feature an ad seeking to urgently rent his mother's three-bedroom home for only $650 per month. This home is not a place for rent in Dallas, Oregon, but is a photo of a random home in Garland, Texas. The ad link goes to hud4.godaddysites.com (archived here) and features that Garland house on the homepage. That page leads to viewhudforeclosures.com, which carries the disclaimer that it is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This site requires a person to enter personal information before viewing the available homes. The Better Business Bureau does not have a record of a business by this name.
This spamming method takes advantage of the good faith of people in a community who want to be helpful. Lead Stories has debunked a wide variety of deceptive narratives that have been used, including a missing autistic boy, a woman left for dead on the side of the road, a dog that was found, warnings of men shadowing women in department stores and a man who was photographed stealing catalytic converters.
(Editors' Note: Facebook is a client of Lead Stories, which is a third-party fact checker for the social media platform. On our About page, you will find the following information:
Since February 2019 we are actively part of Facebook's partnership with third party fact checkers. Under the terms of this partnership we get access to listings of content that has been flagged as potentially false by Facebook's systems or its users and we can decide independently if we want to fact check it or not. In addition to this we can enter our fact checks into a tool provided by Facebook and Facebook then uses our data to help slow down the spread of false information on its platform. Facebook pays us to perform this service for them but they have no say or influence over what we fact check or what our conclusions are, nor do they want to.)
