A surge of .com.co websites promoting fake “entertainment” stories are spreading virally across social media, adding to the onslaught of fake news articles spreading virally across cyberspace.
When we read a story on a website called NBC.com.co, we could be forgiven for thinking that we’re reading from the NBC website, or at least a site affiliated with NBC.
But as it turns out, this is not the case. Welcome to the next step in the spoof news “fauxtire” industry.
The fake news industry – that lures visitors into believing bogus news stories, is one that has been pretty big business over the last few years for the people behind them. Claiming their stories are actually “for entertainment purposes” or “satirical” is the justification for a never ending slew of news articles that – on first glance – could very well represent genuine news.
And now the people behind such sites are expanding, utilising an array of .com.co domains they’ve purchased that appear to be reputable brands, such as NBC, NYTimes and USAToday. Com.co is the domain extension for the Colombia, and popular brands rarely buy these domains to this extension.
See an article on USAToday.com.co? Don’t be so fast to believe it. Not unless you think President Obama really is pushing for a “National Equality Day” (he isn’t despite fooling many media outlets) or that Facebook are banning the Confederate Flag (Still no.)
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NBC.com.co is also in on the action after being registered only a few weeks from this article and has already managed to spawn a viral rumour that Breaking Bad is up for a 6th season (sorry BB fans, that is not the case.)
And if you believe that NYTimes.com.co was legitimate you’d be wrong too, unless you think the Ku Klux Klan were really Endorsing Dr. Ben Carson for President.
When reading a news article, be careful that you’re not reading from a fake news site. Not sure? Read our article on 5 ways of spotting fake news websites here.
Remember to keep current with fake news as well, our sister site ThatsFake.com has a Facebook page here.