Claim
Through its WhatsApp tipline, iVerify Zambia received a photograph of an allegedly lost 2-year-old child. This photo is circulating on social media platforms (WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter) with a message claiming that the child was found in Chelston, Zambia, and is currently safe at a local police station. The message urges people to share the post widely to help locate the child’s family.
Rating Justification
iVerify Zambia has determined this claim to be false. A verification of the image’s source using reverse image search confirmed that the photograph has been shared on various social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by several accounts from different states in the United States of America.
In one of the Instagram accounts the message reads, “A 2-year-old boy was found approximately one hour ago in Jacksonville. Authorities have ensured the child’s safety at the police station, but his family has not been located…This is a repost from our city; unfortunately, I have no additional information regarding this matter”. Similar messages on other social media pages claimed the child was also found in West Sacramento and Illinois.
Although our investigations could not ascertain the exact details of where the image was taken from, they have revealed that the claim that the child was found in Chelston, Zambia, is false.