couldn`t find her way home, her parents thought she was in a hotel. They went looking for her, the girl finally found a way home when her dad told her that her mom has been killed in a car accident. The story went out on twitter & Justin met her and she told him the story and they cried together. They also went to dinner together and Justin is paying psycological support.
(sic)
This image is being circulated throughout Facebook along with a message that claims the girl in the photo was raped after a Justin Bieber concert. The message asserts the girl was "crying in the street for 3 days" before making it home only to be told her mother was killed in a car accident. The message also claims that after finding out, pop singer Bieber had dinner with the girl and it currently paying for her psychological support.
The garbled, poorly written message - however - is completely fabricated. The photo attached of the girl is one stolen from a tumblr website and is one of a series of photos depicting the girl and the singer who briefly met outside a hotel. The owner of the Tumblr site even stated on her site that the photos were taken without permission and the false story then attributed to it. (The Tumblr site is here.)
Additionally the story of a girl being raped after a Bieber concert, then finding out her mother died and then having Justin Bieber pay for her psychological support is a rather far-fetched story and one that would almost certainly be picked up by mainstream media but we have been unable to find any reports regarding the story told in the message which confirms that the story is false.
The photo has been stolen and the story made up, thus Internet users are strongly advised not to circulate the image or message.
The Internet, and social networking sites like Facebook, are perfect platforms for spreading untruths, misinformation, rumor and propaganda. Thousands of inaccurate, exaggerated, deceptive or just plain false messages are circulated every single day.
For the anti-scam community to successfully tackle this plethora of false rumours, it is important that anyone who uses the Internet be able to identify false rumours and fully understands the possible consequences of spreading false information
