The account named "Rena Capo" has posted an article on its Facebook page, claiming that the author of the publication is the mother of a sick 5-month-old baby who needs surgery.
The same article was published on January 19 in the public Facebook group called "Albanians in London". The post, accompanied by a photo of the baby, asks for financial assistance to carry out the operation.
Based on the suspicion that the post does not show the bank account for financial assistance, nor any other information, hibrid.info has researched and managed to find the real identity of the babies shown in two of the published photos, which purport to represent the baby in question.
After research conducted through online search engines, it was confirmed that photographs of Russian children were used to falsely present them as Albanian.
Link to the post published by the "Rena Capo" account, shared in the "Albanians in London" group on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1754956111454803/posts/3862141810736212/
Although the author justified the lack of a bill by claiming to be in the hospital, the failure to present a bill in such cases leaves room for suspicion.
To verify the authenticity of the publication, hibrid.info used search engines to research and find the real identities of the babies shown in two of the photos published in the post (see here and here).
Based on data on babies whose photos were found published on the Instagram of a charitable foundation (see here), as part of raising funds for their recovery, are from Russia.
The two photographs show and prove the different identities of the babies depicted and date from 2020/21, which contradicts the claim raised by the "Rena Capo" Facebook account.
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).
By further investigating this post published by the "Rena Capo" account, hibrid.info has managed to find that the same claim has been circulating on the internet since March 3, 2021, when it was published in the public Facebook group "Lajme nga Bota". (see here)
Hibrid.info has previously covered this post made by the account "Rena Capo" on July 27, 2023, which was then posted in another public Facebook group called "ALBANIAN NATIONAL DIASPORA". (see here)
Analyze:
Based on fact-checking, hibrid.info has confirmed that a Facebook account has published a post requesting financial assistance for a sick baby posing as Albanian, using photos of babies from Russia.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info evaluates 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.