Did an article accurately report that Elon Musk bought a gift for a child whose mother, a Starbucks cashier, was "struggling to buy a gift for her daughter"? No, that's not true: An article linked in the post that made this claim included an image with clear indications of having been AI generated. Furthermore, this story has been repeated with several variations since early December 2024. It initially appeared in a video posted by a YouTube channel with the disclaimer: "The stories shared on this channel are purely fictional and created exclusively for entertainment purposes."
The fictional story appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on February 3, 2025. The post was captioned:
Elon Musk Overhears a Starbucks Cashier Struggling to Buy a Gift for Her Daughter--What He Does Next Will Melt Your Heart!
Check comments
This is how the post looked on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Feb 7 18:03:40 2025 UTC)
The first comment has a link to the website viralworldss.online, pointing to a February 3, 2025, article (archived here) titled, "Elon Musk Overhears a Starbucks Cashier Struggling to Buy a Gift for Her Daughter--What He Does Next Will Melt Your Heart!"
Neither the post nor the article provided evidence to support the story, including where or when it might have happened.
In addition to the article, Lead Stories found a similar story shared in a video (archived here) published to YouTube. The 10-minute-plus-long clip was posted by the channel "Prime Hub" on December 2, 2024, titled, "Elon Musk Stops Cold When He Hears Starbuck's Cashier Can't Afford Gift For Daughter & Does THIS." This narrative contains more details than the 342-word-long viralworldss online article, but it is essentially the same story.
The Prime Hub channel also carried a disclaimer (archived here) that read:
The stories shared on this channel are purely fictional and created exclusively for entertainment purposes. Any similarities to real events, individuals, or circumstances are entirely coincidental and unintentional. These narratives are not meant to portray, reference, or represent any actual occurrences, people, or organizations.
Prime Hub posted another similar fictional Musk video (archived here) on November 27, 2024. It was titled, "Elon Musk Walks Into Starbucks Full Of First Responders - What He Does Next Went Completely Viral!"
This video's high-resolution thumbnail image (archived here) is the same as one of the images used in the 2025 viralworldss.online article about the cashier.
Close visual inspection of the aforementioned high-resolution image showed flaws commonly found (archived here) in AI generated photos, including a misspelling of Starbucks to "Babbuck" and Musk holding a coffee with five fingers and a thumb. These elements are shown in the screenshot compilation below. (Note: Lead Stories did not add the red markups; these were included in the YouTube video.)
(Source: Lead Stories composite image with YouTube thumbnail taken on Fri Feb 07 20:41:16 2025 UTC)
Comparing the two images from the article to each other (below), they clearly don't show real photos snapped in succession, as Musk and the Starbucks crew are wearing different clothes in each image.
(Source: Lead Stories composite image with viralworldss.online screenshots taken on Fri Feb 07 22:52:49 2025 UTC)
A February 2, 2025, post (archived here) by the Facebook page Basketball Lovers included the same narrative as the claim at the center of this fact check. However, Musk was substituted with the name and likeness of Kansas City Chiefs football quarterback Patrick Mahomes (pictured below).
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Fri Feb 07 20:41:16 2025 UTC)
The corresponding Mahomes article on the website, btuatu.com (archived here), is similar to the Musk article on viralworldss.online, with names and keywords substituted with synonyms, a technique called article spinning, used by some unscrupulous publishers to avoid plagiarism detection.
For example, the below sentence from viralworldss.online website reads:
It all began on an ordinary afternoon at a Starbucks. Musk, known for his unassuming public appearances, was waiting in line when he overheard a conversation between a cashier and a colleague.
While a similar sentence from the from btuatu.com website reads:
It was an ordinary afternoon at a Starbucks in Kansas City. Patrick Mahomes, known for his down-to-earth personality, was waiting in line for his coffee when he overheard a conversation between a young cashier and her coworker.
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Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving Elon Musk can be found here.
