Got caught in a fake 'local news' trap and wasted 3 hours

I was scrolling for overlooked stories about water rights in Arizona and landed on a site that looked exactly like my local paper. The layout was the same, the logo was close, even had a reporter name I recognized. Turned out it was an AI-generated content farm pushing solar panel ads with fake quotes from my city council. I reported it to the real paper's editor and she said they had gotten 50 calls that week about it.

3 comments

3 Comments

claire_young7629d ago

Crazy that they used a real reporter's name, that's a whole different level of sketchy. Wonder if the paper has thought about putting a verified badge on their actual articles or doing something with their domain to make it obvious. Cause the scammers are just going to move to another local paper template next week, and 50 calls is nothing compared to how many people probably just clicked the ad without thinking.

finleyl3929d ago

Gonna be real, feels like people are making this bigger than it needs to be lol.

taraross29d ago

Have you considered that the reporter whose name was used might have to deal with people thinking she's a scammer now? @claire_young76 I used to think fake news was just about politicians, but this whole solar panel ad trap changed my mind. It shows how scammers will steal real identities to push sales, and that's way more dangerous than a random clickbait headline.