Man warns about 'rage bait' trend where strangers steal family photos and add inappropriate context
There's an easy way to spot this troubling new scam.
Since many families live states away from each other, they rely heavily on social media to post updates for far away family members. You get a new job, you share a smiling selfie announcing the news. You kid's soccer team just made the championships, you snap an amazing shot showing their excitement and hit upload. It feels like a harmless way to stay connected and if you're diligent about privacy settings and keeping your friends list down to only family and really close friends, it's usually fine.
But everyone's pages aren't locked down like a vault in the back of a bank, and sometimes people we once loved become strangers that no longer feel safe. There are also instances of influencers sharing family photos or cute pictures of their kids to help their followers feel connected to their lives. But it's been proven that as technology continues to advance and people with cruel intentions gain access to private details, nefarious things can happen to good people.
Currently there's a picture of a woman and her son going around social media. The photos looks completely harmless and likely were originally giving an update to friends or followers but the caption that now accompanies the picture suggests an incestuous desire on the mother's part. The content is so disturbing that it has gone viral across multiple social media platforms with people across the globe lambasting the mother.
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It immediately activates people's protection response to see a parent speak that way about their child causing most people to comment and share without doing any further research. Jae Sprint saw this going down online and decided to do a reverse image search and warn people of the dangers associated with these sorts of posts.
"What you're seeing there is a post of a mother who posted her child and basically said that she's intimately in love with her kid and how if it was another life they'd be together, like physically," he says before explaining the issue. "Guys, when you see like these crazy, outrageous, rage bait posts like this and all you see is selfies of people, please do a quick reverse image search on this. I looked her up, it's not even her. Some random person created an account just to completely slander and defame this woman."
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Sprint explains that he's seen this happen to a lot of people and it can have extreme consequences to those whose pictures are being used. At the beginning of the video he says people have lost their jobs, friends and more over these fake posts that many times they have no idea exist.
"Guys, if you see stand still images of people and just a bunch of crazy rage bait, you never actually see any videos of that person, please do some research because you're going to ruin this woman's life," he pleads.
@jae_sprint This could ruin someone
♬ original sound - Jae Sprint
The picture the account comes from is fairly new and that photo with the upsetting content is the first video uploaded. There are only three videos uploaded to that page and they are all just still images with music behind them, no actual videos of the people in the photos. When clicking on the tagged accounts of her "children," they are also new accounts with one to three videos that only feature still images set to music. There doesn't seem to be a real person behind the accounts which proves Sprint's assessment is likely correct.
People were thankful that he pointed this information out with someone saying, "I got the “ick” so quick, then the judgement without any second thought. Reacting on emotion. Thanks for the reality check! We all need it."
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Another person writes, "This is awesome to bring awareness & serve as a cautionary reminder. People hear/see something & automatically react w/ out investigating or actually looking into. I think many, myself included has been guilty of this at one point or another honestly."
"Wow! Never entered my mind anyone would ever do this! Guess I need to remove my rose colored glasses," someone shares.
"That poor woman. Do better people, that could be any of us too. That’s scary AF," one person chimes in.
It is scary and with the rise of AI, there may be more of this sort of thing popping up but Sprint's reminder to research before reacting when something makes you angry online is an important reminder. Hopefully, this woman and any other person dealing with this is able to get it remedied quickly.