Lying clickbait: Fake Woodstock photos, historic images and death reports

Despite calls to crack down on lying clickbait, online publishers are still running promoted articles that use deceptive photos.
Often the photos have nothing to do with the subject of the sponsored weblink.
For instance, a recent Taboola-sponsored article titled “Woodstock groupies camera discovered, what musicians didn’t want you to see” used a recent photo of actress and model Emily Ratajkowski. The 25-year-old beauty was born more than two decades after Woodstock.
There are a lot of great Woodstock photos. Why would the creators of this promoted article use one that is clearly a lie? To drive traffic from curious web surfers, of course.

An Outbrain-sponsored weblink titled “The most unnerving photos of the history’s hottest actresses!” used a picture of a sexy woman in a bikini. Bad grammar is one thing, but this isn’t a photo of an actress. It’s Kosovo-born model Hafiia Mira.
Also, what’s “unnerving” about beach photos of the curvaceous beauty?

This next example of lying clickbait must have been created by Pinocchio. It’s a Revcontent-sponsored article titled “Final images taken seconds before tragedy struck.” It used a photo of a woman in a pool with a gigantic snake.
Well, that photo is a poorly Photoshopped phony. I’ve included the original photo of the normal-size snake here along with a better shot of the fake. (Check out the woman’s fingers from her left hand in the doctored photo).

And finally a Taboola-sponsored link titled “‘Growing Pains’ actor tragically passes away” uses a photo of actor Kirk Cameron from the show. Cameron is very much alive. This article appeared after the recent death of Cameron’s co-star from the show, Alan Thicke.