Fake Ebola Poster a Racist Hoax

A poster placed around the UK this week issued an “urgent appeal” to find an immigrant in the area who had tested positive for Ebola. The poster has been deemed a racist hoax.

Fake Poster

The poster claimed that an immigrant named Jamal Malouf had entered the UK illegally after testing positive for Ebola. It warns that the man had been seen in Leicester and should be avoided. The full text of the poster reads:

Have you seen this man?

Jamal Malouf

Missing black immigrant Jamal entered the UK illegally last Wednesday. Jamal tested positive for Ebola and was last seen in Leicester. Avoid at all costs and report to the number below if spotted.

A photo of the poster hanging in a medical center received heavy social media sharing. It has since been taken down, and Leicestershire Police noted, “We would like to assure the public that there are no known cases of Ebola in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.” Only four people in Leicestershire as of this writing are known to have been tested for Ebola, and none of those tests were positive for the virus.

The phone number provided on the poster is disconnected.

The Daily Bale

The responsible party for the poster is the extremist website The Daily Bale, which is led by 20-something Joshua Bonehill (sometimes referred to as Joshua Bonehill-Paine), who has been described by security expert Graham Cluley in a BBC article as “moronic.” Social media users may remember another hoax by Bonehill which circulated earlier this year, the Amy Hamilton Hoax. That hoax also involved a similarly-designed fake poster, which featured a girl who was allegedly kidnapped by an Asian gang. That hoax was also an apparent attempt at promoting racism. The BBC article also notes that Bonehill has admitted to creating “shocking” stories designed to go viral online. Bonehill has faced legal challenges recently, including accusations of posting false information online.

In addition to the poster, The Daily Bale published an “exclusive” accompanying article which discusses the fake Ebola immigrant story. The phony story claims that the NHS center for disease control “upped the Ebola threat to critical” after the man disappeared in the area. No such threat exists.

Fake Photos

The article includes a photo which allegedly shows police sealing off a street in the “manhunt” for Malouf. That photo, however, was taken from a 2013 article published by the Leicester Mercury regarding a woman who was sexually assaulted.

A second photo which allegedly shows police questioning men who fit Malouf’s description is also lifted from older news sources. It can be found in this June 2014 article by The Guardian.

Bottom Line

A poster circulating in the UK about a missing man with Ebola is a hoax. It was created by a racist, extremist website which has been known to perpetrate similar hoaxes in the past. The photos used in its “exclusive” on the subject were lifted from older news stories.