Kamal Ghorui
The name Cole Tomas Allen has suddenly gone viral online, but not for the reasons many posts are claiming. In the hours after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner incident in Washington DC, several social media posts began spreading stories linking him to college sports teams. These posts looked real at first glance, but they were not true.One widely shared Facebook post even claimed that Allen worked with the University of Arizona basketball team and that his wife was also connected to the program. But there is no proof of that. The image used in the post had clear mistakes, including a wrong logo on a sweatshirt. That small detail exposed a bigger issue. Many of these posts appear to be created using artificial intelligence, designed to grab attention and push people toward external websites.
Cole Tomas Allen fake college sports links spread across Facebook as Meta removes viral scam posts tied to White House Correspondents’ Dinner incident
As more people started looking closely, a pattern became clear. Multiple Facebook pages shared similar stories, each connecting Cole Tomas Allen to different sports teams. Some posts even targeted NFL fans by linking him to the San Francisco 49ers. Others mentioned college teams without any real evidence.These pages often had very few followers and mostly shared questionable or false news. The goal seemed simple. Each post included a link that took users to websites filled with ads and AI-written content. According to a report by SFGate, these websites could be making thousands of dollars from clicks alone.Some users online quickly noticed the problem. One comment under a post joked, “So far he’s been attending 15 universities.” That reaction showed how far the false claims had spread and how unrealistic they had become.Social media company Meta has now started taking action. A spokesperson told Daily Mail that the company is removing posts that break its rules. They also said they are tracking how these scams are being created and shared. In another statement to SFGate, a spokesperson said, “It’s reprehensible when opportunists seek to exploit moments of tragedy.”Even with these efforts, many fake posts are still online. That makes it harder for regular users to know what is real and what is not. The situation also feels familiar. A similar type of scam appeared months ago after the death of Charlie Kirk, where false stories were also linked to sports teams to attract attention.Right now, this case shows how quickly misinformation can spread, especially when it mixes serious news with popular topics like sports.
