A typical fake forward is a composite of 4-5 images:

1.

2.

3.

4.

INSTANCES WITH EERIE SIMILARITIES TARGETING ‘OUTSIDERS’

KARNATAKA

May 24, 2018

Where Rumours Sprea

Fatal Lies

The Victim

The Trigger

TAMIL NADU

May 9, 2018

Where Rumours Spread

Fatal Lies

The Victim

The Trigger

JHARKHAND

May 18, 2017

Where Rumours Spread

Fatal Lies

The Victims

The Trigger

Source: Media reports

NEW DELHI: A slew of protests took place across the country after 10 people were killed in two months by mobs reacting to rumours of kidnappers grabbing children, but the flow of fake messages and morphed videos has hardly been impacted. Though police round up people, sometimes in the hundreds, the fight against fake messages stoking real fears is barely begun.Doctored content, fake alerts and sensationalised messages are all it takes to fuel mass suspicion of strangers and propel mobs to brutally attack innocents. These forwards, of blood-thirsty gangs of kidnappers, thieves or dacoits, spread mainly via WhatsApp and Facebook, use morphed images, even from other countries, to create a fear psychosis.One or two images of a gory blood-spattered crime scene. These have been traced to other countries too. Army copter crashes, educational videos, old media reports - any disturbing visual is put to use.A morphed image of a gang/group is identified as being killers. Most images are from conflict areas around the world, including Syria , or from gang wars in Brazil.Special villages and towns are named in a message saying these men have moved into the area to strike.The men and women are identified as 'outsiders', speaking a different language and belonging to specific tribes or regions.| 1 killedd | Slum areas of Bengaluru’s Chamarajnagar, in the heart of the city| Locals said they received WhatsApp messages of child abductors| Kalu Ramu, a daily wager from Rajasthan who had come to Bengaluru| Locals claimed they saw Ramu handing out chocolates and sweets among children and thought it was a ploy to lure them away| 1 killed| Athimoor village, Tiruvannamalai district, north TN| One forward is a video of two bikers snatching a child on the road and speed away. Clip is edited from an educational video in Pakistan| Rukmani, 65, from Chennai succumbed to injuries after she was beaten up. Three relatives and their driver were seriously injured| Rukmani and party, who were visiting from elsewhere, offered chocolates to a couple of children only to be accused by the children’s families of being kidnappersSeraikela-Kharswan, East Singhbhum district| 8 killed| Forwards circulated in rural pockets that child abductors on the prowl| A local said he edited a Facebook post of child abductors in their area. This he forwarded to scores of groups| Two of the eight killed in two separate incidents were brothers whose grandmother was also beaten up and died later. Four others killed in the second incident in Rajnagar were from a minority community| One member of the mob said they got a cellphone message that kidnappers had been caught at Nagadih and so they rushed there as a group