Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
A piece of content has been published in Albanian, requesting financial assistance for a sick 5-month-old baby who needs surgery.
The text, accompanied by photographs of the baby, was published yesterday (June 26) in a Facebook group called "ALBANIAN DIASPORA", by an account named "Rena Capo".
What makes content suspicious?
Hibrid.info has previously covered the same publication, posted by the same account (see hereThe post does not show the bank account for the requested financial assistance and other information, and even the identity of the baby shown in the photograph has not been found.
Link to content published in the public group "ALBANIAN DIASPORA", on Facebook by the account, "Rena Capo":
Although in the post, the author justified the lack of a bank account by claiming that she is in the hospital. The failure to disclose this information in such cases leaves room for suspicion.
Based on this suspicion, hibrid.info used search engines to investigate the authenticity of the content and found the real identity of the babies depicted in two of the photos published in the post (see here and here).
Based on the information found, these two photos were found published on the Instagram account of a charitable foundation (see here), as part of raising funds for the treatment of these babies in Russia.
The two found photographs, which date from 2020/21, show and prove the different identities of the babies, whose photographs were used to falsely present the baby in need of help.
Also, to clarify it even more, hibrid.info has found the website of the charitable foundation operating in Russia called "Vera v detstvo" (see here).
Analyze:
The claim in the content requesting financial assistance for a sick baby is untrue.
The publication did not provide any data on the implementation of the aid, while the attached photos show various babies, the country to which they belong is Russia.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses these posts as "Fraud".
Reasoning:
The “Deception” rating is given to informational content that is manipulated in terms of visual (deepfake, cheapfake), audio, or textual content to deceive the audience. This form of deception is usually used to produce false and manipulated content.