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Pokemon Go: Don't Fall for These Dumb Hoaxes

Pokemon Go: Don't Fall for These Dumb Hoaxes

By Abby Ohlheiser, The Washington Post | Updated: 12 July 2016 17:28 IST

Highlights

There are several Pokemon Go stories making rounds on the Internet
Many of them are false, made up just to stay along the trend
Pokemon Go has taken the world by storm since its launch

Pokémon Go is a phenomenon. Naturally, this means that the mobile game has inspired a parade of hoax stories, many of which seem to come from a single sketchy website, with connections to one of the more notorious faux news organizations on the Internet.

Cartel Press' home page is covered in stories about Pokémon Go - some based on true events, others wholly made up. No, a teen didn't kill his younger brother "because he thought he deleted his Pokémon." No, Pokémon Go didn't cause a major highway accident because some guy stopped in the middle of a highway "to catch Pikachu!" (at least, not yet). No, the Islamic State did not take responsibility for "Pokémon Go's login problems; server issues." Come on.

These stories are fake, but many of them aren't outside the realm of the possible. A teen did find a dead body while playing Pokémon Go, and there are some much more credible reports of Pokémon Go-related injuries out there caused by the game, which was released in the United States less than a week ago. In Missouri, police have said that four people were targeting armed robbery victims in the St. Louis area using the augmented-reality app over the weekend.

(Also see: Pokemon Go Cheatsheet: 10 Things to Know About the Game That Has Everyone Hooked)

Huzlers describes itself as "the most notorious fauxtire entertainment website in the world," and it has perfected the art of the sensational but plausible fake story. Cartel Press is owned by Huzlers, which describes its content as "satire." In a 2015 interview with Fusion, Huzlers's founders claimed that they weren't deliberately trying to trick people with their fake stories - although their business model appears to be based on getting people to share stories about major news events by hitting the sweet spot of sensational plausibility.

(Also see: Pokemon Go Is Responsible for These Real Life Weird and Scary Things)

"Most of (the stories), we keep in mind that (they're) so shocking, we're going to be shocked ourselves if they believed it," Huzlers founder Pablo Reyes told Fusion, "We don't try to trick people intentionally - but if they get tricked, they get tricked."

Although some of the fake Pokémon headlines on Cartel Press sound plausible, the articles themselves quickly give away their own fakery to anyone who actually reads them (which, we know, isn't how sharing news articles on the Internet works anymore).

(Also see: How to Play Pokemon Go in India? Here's Everything You Need to Know)

The story about that (fake) major highway accident caused by a guy who really wanted that Pikachu has all of the specifics of an urban legend. The story carries a dateline of "Massachusetts," and its author cites "the officer Fredrick Jones" as a source. As Snopes notes, the photo illustrating the story comes from a Colorado accident in 2014.

(Also see: How to Download, Install, and Play Pokemon Go Right Now)

The made-up distracted driver, however, does have one pretty great made-up quote:

"S-, if you wanna catch them all," the fake 26-year-old Lamar Hickson never said, "you gotta risk it all so I put my car in park and started tossing these balls."

Huzlers didn't immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from The Washington Post.

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