False and misleading social media posts about Donald Trump's would-be assassin, Cole Tomas Allen, have gone viral. Similar to a previous scam involving conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk's murder, this con exploits sports fans and teams.
AI-Generated Posts Spread Rapidly
One Facebook post begins with 'BREAKING: The shooter at the White House Correspondents' Dinner has reportedly been identified as 30-year-old Cole Allen from Phoenix, Arizona. A former staff member of the Arizona basketball team, his wife is currently also employed by the team.' The post is clearly generated by artificial intelligence, as evidenced by the Jordan Brand logo on Allen's University of Arizona sweatshirt. Wildcats gear features the Nike logo, not Michael Jordan's 'Jumpman.' Moreover, Allen has no connection to the school or its basketball team.
Multiple False Claims Surface
Countless similar scam posts have been shared, falsely linking Allen to various teams. One post claims he worked for the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, which is also untrue. The Daily Mail has sought comment from Meta, Facebook's parent company, regarding efforts to remove these posts. Meta responded to a recent SFGate.com investigation, stating it is 'reprehensible when opportunists seek to exploit moments of tragedy' and committed to removing violating content. However, many fake posts remain.
These stories are shared on seemingly harmless Facebook pages like 'Roll Tide, Over and Over' and 'Spartan Unfiltered.' A commenter joked, 'So far he’s been attending 15 universities,' in response to one scam post. Closer inspection reveals these pages have few followers and mostly fake news. The posts include links to ad-heavy websites loaded with AI content. SFGate estimates these sites generate thousands of dollars in ad revenue with minimal effort.
Similar Scams in the Past
A similar scam emerged after Charlie Kirk's murder in Utah. Fake posts claimed 49ers tight end George Kittle urged the NFL not to memorialize Kirk. Kittle's wife shared an angry statement on Instagram. Allen's name has also been used in posts claiming he was a driver for Savannah Guthrie or actor Eric Braeden.
The proliferation of AI content farms is a growing issue. According to NewsGuard and SFGate, over 3,000 such websites now exist, up from about 1,000 a year earlier. A study from the Internet Archive indicates one in three websites created since 2022 are AI-generated.
