Facts Matter: Tyler Perry says social media giveaways in his name are fake
Actor Tyler Perry took to Facebook to debunk recent Facebook promotions bearing his name.
"I'm not giving away anything," Perry said.
In a video posted on Facebook, Perry claimed the social media posts offering giveaways from the actor are "scams," according to CBSnews.com.
"My team has to shut down these things every day," he said in the video.
Perry urged viewers not to give away personal information. "Do not give them anything," he said.
He said he doesn't know who is responsible for the fake promotions. Every day "10, 20, 30 of those things" are shut down on Facebook, Perry said.
"In my life, I'm a giver. I give a lot of things to a lot of people …," he said in the video. "But that is not true. The Facebook stuff, I'm not giving away anything. Stop it, devil."
Perry told viewers to spread the word by sharing his post, which has topped 5 million views.
Four years ago Perry had a similar warning for followers after posts using his name offered auditions for money.
"You never have to pay for an audition," he said.
Fake Fourth photos
A collage of photos falsely claiming to depict how the last four U.S. presidents spent Independence Day recently showed up on social media.
Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama are shown greeting American troops as Donald Trump tosses a golf ball in the air while leaning on a club.
The image, including the caption, "How our current and three most previous Commanders-in-Chief decided to spend their Fourth of Julys," was distributed just after the holiday, according to Snopes.com.
Although the four pictures are genuine, none are recent and none were taken on a Fourth of July.
The photos included in the post show: Clinton on Jan. 13, 1996, shaking hands with U.S. soldiers in the former Yugoslav republic; Bush on July 24, 2001, with American soldiers in Kosovo; Obama on May 25, 2014, greeting U.S. troops at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan; and Trump on June 27, 2012, during a pro-am golf tournament at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland.
Trump spent about four hours on the links on the recent Independence Day, Snopes said, and also hosted a White House barbecue for members of the military, telling troops he was "honored to celebrate American independence with the heroes who protect American independence."
Video not all Thai cave
Some fake news is mixed in with stunning accounts and images emerging from the rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach in Thailand.
A rescue mission began earlier this month after the entire soccer team was found alive but trapped in THAM Luang Cave, according to The New York Times. A group of divers took the 11- to 16-year-old teammates and their coach one-by-one through a series of narrow, underwater passageways out of the cave.
Some videos making the rounds on social media claiming to be from the rescue are not even from Thailand, according to CTV News of Canada.
One video of divers handling a stretcher is actually of a French diving team conducting a cave rescue drill. The video has been online since 2010.
Another video showing a diver getting through a narrow passage has been online since 2012 and is from Wisconsin.
And some false information is being distributed through a fake Facebook account for rescue mission chief and acting governor Narongsak Osatanakorn, according to CTV News.
No Clinton ties in blast
A couple were killed July 7 when an explosion, described by neighbors as a "huge ball of fire," destroyed their two-story New Jersey home, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
John Paladino, 73, and his wife, Carole, 72, died in the blast caused by natural gas, Gloucester County spokeswoman Debra Sellitto told the Inquirer. An investigation is underway, but there is no evidence of foul play, Sellitto said.
That didn't stop conspiracy-minded sites from claiming the explosion occurred just as Carole Paladino was set to testify against Hillary Clinton, according to Snopes.com.
Those claims said Carole Paladino was due to testify before a grand jury as part of an investigation into Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. The alleged connection stems from a 2016 report that Mylan Pharmaceuticals, which had increased the cost of its EpiPen by more than 400 percent, once donated to the Clinton Foundation.
It is unlikely that John Paladino, who worked at a funeral home, and Carole Paladino, a retired school nurse, were involved in testimony about the pharmaceutical company, Snopes said.
• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.