What was claimed
The photo shows a man with dementia who has gone missing in Scunthorpe.
Our verdict
This is a hoax. The photo comes from a community group based in the US and shows a volunteer.
Facebook post does not show a missing man with dementia named ‘Mr Jones’
15 June 2023
A Facebook post claiming to be searching for a missing man who has dementia is a hoax.
The post, which appeared in a buy-and-sell group for Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, says: “NOT YET FOUND!! #Scunthorpe Mr.Jones aged 81 drove out with a dog Rex and he still hasn't returned. He doesn’t know where he’s going, he has dementia. There is a silver alert activated on him. Please help bump this post so we can get him home safely.”
Full Fact has written before about a similar hoax post using the same photo, which has been traced back to the US and does not show a man called Mr Jones.
There are many signs that this post is not genuine. Firstly, Full Fact traced the photo showing a man holding a dog to a community Facebook group in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with the original post thanking a local volunteer.
Another sign the appeal is a hoax is that it says a “silver alert” has been activated. This refers to a way of notifying the public about missing people who may be elderly, have dementia or other conditions that only operates in the US–it would not be used for someone missing in Scunthorpe or anywhere else in the UK.
The post is also very similar to other hoax posts about missing elderly people that we’ve fact checked previously. The hoax posts often say that the person is missing with a dog, has a disease such as dementia, a silver alert has been activated and ask that people share the post to help return them safely.
Other fact checks we’ve written on similar hoax posts about injured pets and abandoned babies also use similar phrasing, such as asking people to “bump” the post to help spread the appeal.
Hoaxes like this can take different forms, from people claiming to have found a lost dog to those allegedly appealing for help to find their birth parents. We have seen these posts being edited later to offer cheap housing, links to surveys or other freebies.
This behaviour means that local groups may become overwhelmed with false information and that people genuinely trying to trace relatives or look for missing loved ones could get ignored or even dismissed as false.
We have written to Meta expressing these concerns and asking the company to take stronger action in response to this problem.
Image courtesy of Solen Feyissa
Correction 9 August 2023
This article has been corrected to clarify who silver alerts apply to.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the photo comes from the US and does not show a man named Mr Jones who has gone missing in Scunthorpe.