VAN ZANDT COUNTY, Texas — The Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office is warning of a fictitious news story of a mother killing her children which has been making its rounds on social media, much like a similar fictitious story shared in Kaufman County approximately a month ago.
VAN ZANDT COUNTY, Texas — The Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office is warning of a fictitious news story of a mother killing her children which has been making its rounds on social media, much like a similar fictitious story shared in Kaufman County approximately a month ago.
“This office has been made aware of a fake news story on Facebook titled ‘5 children killed by mother in Van Zandt County,’” the department stated.
“This article is 100 percent fake and is more than likely spam trying to obtain your information,” stated the department. “Only click links you know are from a trusted source.”
The article first appeared on a new Facebook Page entitled “Van Zandt County News at approximately 4 p.m. on Tuesday and redirects to usatuday.in. The article has since been shared 33 times.
This incident and the Kaufman County incident are similar in that a new Facebook page was created with the sole purpose of sharing the fictitious article and redirecting to a website with continuous pop-up ads and other links with possible malicious content.
Similar incidents have garnered media attention across North Texas in the past couple of months.
