Every year… the “organ mafia” is on the move in the summer. This was also the case this year, as the NRW Hamm police reported and emphasized that it was a fake.

NRW Hamm police write on their Facebook page:

# FakeNews - # Bulgarian # organ mafia in the area # Hamm on the move - “old hat” in a new city

The following story is currently circulating on social media, especially in one or another WhatsApp group:

Unknown people in the Hamm area would lure children into vehicles in order to kidnap them, kill them and then sell their organs on the black market. The police said that the perpetrators were the Bulgarian organ mafia.

This is fake news and these are the facts:

For years we have not had a single case reported in which children were or were supposed to be kidnapped. No investigations or arrests have been made in this matter.

When a crime as serious as child abduction occurs, both we and the media report on it.

Whoever wrote and spread the message is lying and unnecessarily stoking fears, especially among parents.

This form of fake news is not new. Other cities and communities have also been “confronted” with such reports in the past.

Is this really “old hat”?

But really old! The alleged Bulgarian organ mafia has been bothering us since Mimikama existed, i.e. since 2011. In fact, we reported on it in October 2011 .
But the story is much older: the first version of such a story that we were able to find in our research dates back to the 17th century. It was about a child who went missing at a celebration and was found with his eyes gouged out.

They are everywhere!

The time and place change, but the components are always the same: men, preferably with a southern appearance, either from Romania or Bulgaria, are traveling in vans to catch children. These messages are often accompanied by an alleged photo evidence of two young men in a white van. In 2014, this hysteria over organ-stealing foreigners reached such a peak that we wrote a constantly updated article .

Screenshot Mimikama.at
Screenshot Mimikama.at

So what's the point?

It plays on people's primal fears by depicting an event that one would never want to experience. This then drives readers to share on Facebook and WhatsApp. Not reprehensible per se, but the “Peter and the Wolf” effect cannot be dismissed: If a real warning message actually circulates, it gets lost in the swamp of meaningless chain letters full of urban legends.

Therefore, sharing such posts should generally be discouraged unless it is an official warning message, for example from the police. 

 

 


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )