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Who Is Amelia Carter? Fake Identity of NYC Subway Fire Victim Goes Viral
Newsweek via MSN ^ | 12/23/24 | Marni Rose McFall

Posted on 12/24/2024 9:23:46 AM PST by SeekAndFind

A post has gone viral on social media that falsely identifies a victim of a recent attack on the New York City subway.

On December 23, a post claimed the victim was a woman named Amelia Carter, and included an AI-generated image. The post, which is a hoax, had been viewed 2.4 million times on X at the time of publication.

A spokesperson for the DCPI confirmed to Newsweek that identification of a the victim in the attack is still pending.

Early on December 22, a woman was set on fire on the NYC subway. She was pronounced dead at the scene, and the police haven't yet released her identity to the public.

A suspect has been identified in the case, a man named Sebastian Zapeta, who was taken into custody in the hours after the woman died on Sunday morning.

Zapeta is a Guatemalan citizen who was in the U.S. illegally. ICE officials confirmed to Newsweek on Monday that Zapeta entered the U.S. illegally in 2018 and was deported, but then reentered the country.

A post shared on X falsely identifying the victim stated: "This is Amelia Carter. She was burned alive on the subway yesterday. This is Joe bidens America," alongside a blurry image of a young brunette woman.

The community note on X states: "This is a hoax. This photo is AI. No verified news sources as of 23/12/2024 have given a victim name or statement."

The false information has circulated beyond X, and was posted to Reddit and a number of other websites.

One site posted an article about Amelia Carter, creating an entire backstory for the fictional woman; claiming that she had worked as an intern on Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, and that she was a nurse in Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: ameliacarter; fire; illegal; newsweak; nyc; sebastianzapeta; subway
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1 posted on 12/24/2024 9:23:46 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

OK. So what’s fake?

The incident or the woman’s identity?


2 posted on 12/24/2024 9:27:02 AM PST by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus)
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To: SeekAndFind

PT Barnum would have loved the internet.


3 posted on 12/24/2024 9:28:24 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: SeekAndFind

So utterly strange. Video shows the person standing still alight not moving. Cops and people walk by “her” and do nothing, unfazed. Something is very weird about this story.


4 posted on 12/24/2024 9:32:18 AM PST by Obadiah
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To: metmom

the link is fake


5 posted on 12/24/2024 9:35:00 AM PST by God luvs America (6young 3.5 million pay no income tax and vote for DemoKrats...)
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To: metmom
The identity.

Fairly sure the woman was real.

Since they have the burned body.

Just no publicly released identity yet.

Probably because they either do not know or because family has not been notified yet.

So the identity could be real or maybe not. Really, does not matter who she was.

Setting people on fire is not acceptable subway etiquette.

6 posted on 12/24/2024 9:36:45 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: Obadiah
So utterly strange. Video shows the person standing still alight not moving. Cops and people walk by “her” and do nothing, unfazed. Something is very weird about this story.

Agreed.

It doesn't make sense on many levels.

7 posted on 12/24/2024 9:38:53 AM PST by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus)
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To: metmom

OK. So what’s fake?

The incident or the woman’s identity?

Both?


8 posted on 12/24/2024 9:40:30 AM PST by Grampa Dave (If history teaches us anything: It's that history rarely teaches anything. (outofsalt))
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To: SeekAndFind; Angelino97

Who was Amelia Carter, Woman Burned Alive: Nurse from Orlando or PhD in History?
Know Insiders ^ | December 24, 204 | Jnnny Lee

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4286208/posts


9 posted on 12/24/2024 9:41:25 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: metmom

The alleged identity of the victim.

I’d like to think the hoax perpetrator was trying to point out that the horrible crime was one against society, independent of the identity of the victim. But you never know.

As a hoax opportunity environment, I must say I enjoy those who take the time to exploit the normal delay between public awareness of an event and the ultimate backfill of details that can sometimes be held up for days or weeks. Into that vacuum go creative hoaxers who exploit the gap between intense curiousity and available official facts.

My favorite example of that happened in the late 1970’s/early 1980’s when only a few states had lotteries. The NY lottery had reached a jackpot level that was impressive for the time, perhaps $40M, and someone purchased a winning ticket. A woman comes forth and at a press conference claims to be the winner. She made the rounds of GMA and the other morning shows and was the big news for about a 3-4 day period, until the real winner stepped forward and claimed the prize. THe hoaxer presented as a secretary, working while she broke her way into show buisiness, wanting to become an actress. THe newspapaers and televsion news ate this story up - the quintessential starving actress working in the big city with dreams of making it big on Broadway, not having two nickels to rub together and boom she hits the big one! It turned out that the hoax was perpetrated by the infamous political adman and hoaxer Dick Tuck. He hired a model to portray the ostensible winner and coordinated the press events. And the media took it hook line and sinker. Very funny incident. This one, not as funny.


10 posted on 12/24/2024 9:41:39 AM PST by Wally_Kalbacken
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To: God luvs America; SeekAndFind

Who Is Amelia Carter? Fake Identity of NYC Subway Fire Victim Goes Viral
Published Dec 24, 2024 at 5:08 AM EST
Updated Dec 24, 2024 at 10:54 AM EST

https://www.newsweek.com/nyc-subway-fire-victim-amelia-carter-ai-misinformation-hoax-2005548


11 posted on 12/24/2024 9:45:03 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: Aaron0617
White woman sleeping on train and how quickly identified by name and picture
Sounded 4chanish to me. Shouldn’t known

I though ABC, CBS or a journal was also fooled.
12 posted on 12/24/2024 9:46:32 AM PST by Aaron0617
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To: BenLurkin

I imagined that the burned woman was a derelict of some
kind. It is hard for me to imagine a sober sane person getting immersed in flame so completely at 7 am. Unless he drizzled lighter fluid on her first. Of course I am just speculating.

Whoever she was, God have mercy.


13 posted on 12/24/2024 9:46:37 AM PST by Persevero (You cannot comply your way out of tyranny. )
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To: Obadiah

It’s been reported that a walker was next to her.


14 posted on 12/24/2024 9:50:32 AM PST by mware
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To: SeekAndFind

Unfortunately the link doesn’t work:

Whoops!

This page doesn’t exist or can’t be found.


15 posted on 12/24/2024 9:51:08 AM PST by Bon of Babble (You Say You Want a Revolution?)
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To: mware

Also reported they will have to use dental records to identify her, if any exist.


16 posted on 12/24/2024 9:52:29 AM PST by mware
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To: Wally_Kalbacken

Interesting. Had to look him up. A vile individual.


17 posted on 12/24/2024 9:53:41 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: SeekAndFind

With all the weird stuff going on it wouldn’t surprise me to learn this whole horrible story is fake.


18 posted on 12/24/2024 9:58:21 AM PST by Wilderness Conservative (Nature is the ultimate conservative)
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To: BenLurkin

Hmmm......

Could it be the Newsweek article is a take-down misinformation operation?

It already has everybody’s mind set that it, or something about the event was “fake” and.....then poof...get them distracted by the next “trained squirrel”.

An attractive young white woman writhing in horror, then stoically enduring the last seconds...waiting hopelessly for death...AFTER being torched by a pointed headed illegal troglodyte in NYC the very day the Governor does a photo op tour touting subway safety.....?

That, true or not could get the “Deplorables and the Garbage People” (I say both lovingly) doing their own round-up in a not so gentle fashion.

Expect more of the same......atrocities real and fabricated and the spin on each that follows.

It will be the Fugitive Slave Act of 2025......with the same passions and lies on both sides.

The “fog” of the war we are now in....


19 posted on 12/24/2024 10:00:44 AM PST by Lowell1775
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To: metmom

Also, unless she was dried, split and arranged over kindling with a proper draft, I don’t think simply tossing a match on her would be enough.


20 posted on 12/24/2024 10:03:10 AM PST by enumerated (81 million votes my ass)
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