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The man’s booking photo appears in Facebook posts with this claim attached: He’s a serial killer, and he’s at large — in your town.
"Warning," a Jan. 21 Facebook post said in a group for people to "buy/sell/trade" things in Grant County, Wisconsin. "Everyone staying around #grant. We all are being strongly encouraged to stay alert & vigilant during these times as we have serial killer on the loose in our neighborhood. The man identified to be Jeffrey Thomas (61) is moving around the area knocking on people’s doors seeking help, claiming to be starving and homeless. After being helped, he then attacks you after gaining your trust. This guy is heartless and very dangerous. Last night, he stabbed a 41 year old single mom with a knife at her place infront of her kids and left for dead."
Nearly identical warnings have appeared online with one key difference — the purported location where Thomas is "on the loose" is different. We saw posts claiming he was on the run in Cleveland; Scranton, Pennsylvania; Seattle and elsewhere.
That’s because it’s a hoax. And these posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)
The booking photo is authentic but it doesn’t show someone named Jeffrey Thomas. It’s John Arthur Getreu, a convicted serial killer who died in 2023.
Some police departments have rebutted the wanted-serial-killer claims. On Jan. 21, the police department in Pembroke Pines, Florida, said in an Instagram post that it "was not reflective of any crime that has occurred or been reported in our city."
The WFRV-TV station, in Grant County, Wisconsin, reported Jan. 23 that deputies were warning residents of the false claims, calling them "a scam circulating through Buy/Sell/Trade Facebook groups."
The Better Business Bureau has warned about these kinds of bait-and-switch scams before. They work like this: Someone is scrolling through Facebook and sees a post about a wanted serial killer (or, as we’ve previously reported, a missing or found-and-bruised child). The person shares the post. But after the person shares the post, the scammer changes the post to something like a deceptive rental ad.
"These bait-and-switch ads aim to either get a deposit for a rental property before the user gets a chance to see the home—or get your personal information, which could lead to identity theft," the Better Business Bureau said in a November 2024 article on its website. "This scheme has many variations, but the commonality is the emotionality or urgency of the message that encourages concerned people to share the news with their friends."
We rate claims that images show a purported on-the-loose serial killer named Jeffrey Thomas False.
Instagram post, Jan. 21, 2025
Facebook post, Jan. 21, 2025
Facebook post, Jan. 23, 2025
Facebook post, Jan. 22, 2025
Facebook post, Jan. 22, 2025
Instagram post, Jan. 15, 2025
WFRV, Scam Alert: Wisconsin deputies debunk door to door ‘serial killer’ threat on Facebook groups, Jan. 23, 2025
Better Business Bureau, BBB Scam Alert: Facebook scams in local buy-and-sell groups are on the rise, Nov. 5, 2024
PolitiFact, Posts about unidentified child supposedly "found" in several cities aren’t authentic, Jan. 6, 2025
PolitiFact, This viral social media photo does not show a missing child in Pike County, Missouri, July 2, 2024
KGO, Serial killer convicted of Bay Area murders in 1970s dead at 79, Sept. 26, 2023
In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts.