THUNDER BAY – Question: Did seven people die in a recent Thunder Bay shooting?
Answer: No.
However, the facts in this case don’t appear to matter as an apparent malicious website is duping local web users into clicking and browsing the site brain blow news.
The sensational headline reads “Seven dead in Thunder Bay shooting, including gunman” and is placed above a photograph of local police and ambulance surrounding a Cumblerland Street building.
Several people have sent messages to tbnewswatch.com via our various social media streams to ask us if the news story has any validity, and we can say with 100 per cent certainty that it does not.
With the right virus software, your browser will let you know the site’s true intentions the moment you enter the Brain Blow News homepage. On that home page features a number of stories with near identical headlines, the only difference being city names.
“Seven dead in Durham shooting,” reads one headline “Five dead in Winnipeg crash” reads another.
But the photograph used for the Thunder Bay story is real. The photographer, Morris Chisholm, reached out to tbnewswatch.com Tuesday evening to explain.
“There was a stabbing and multiple persons were attacked in the building at 120 South Cumberland South,” Chisholm said about his August 2010 photo. “The image posted is shortly after the (Thunder Bay Police Service) removed the suspect from the cruiser and were handcuffing him on the ground.”
New satire and fake news sites appear to be popping up daily on the Internet. While some sites, like the Onion and the Beaverton, are clear about it comedic intentions, many are clearly producing click-bait headlines with the intention of duping the gullible.
If our virus detection software is accurate, this site has gone beyond the clickbait prank and may actually be trying to force malicious software onto your PC.
Browse carefully.
