Like a million other social media hoaxes, another one is going viral. A user named Selene Delgado Lopez has somehow made it to everyone's friend list. You don't know her but you cannot unfriend that person either. Then, how did the mysterious person make it to your friend list and who is this stranger?
All that is revealed for now is that the mysterious woman is from South America. The reason is that the hoax started spreading in Latin America and most of the posts about her are in Spanish. If you are still wondering how has she managed to join your trusted circle of friends, she hasn't.
What Is the Fuss All About?
Facebook has a 5,000 limit in the friend list and beyond that, you cannot add any. If she has actually managed to become everyone's friend, it must be a glitch, right? Not really. She is actually not on your friend list and that's why you cannot add or remove her.
The reason why Lopez appears to be in your friend list is that when you search the name on Facebook, it shows her profile with no 'add friend' option. Instead, it comes with a 'send message' button that generally doesn't appear for people who are not on your list. That was enough for many netizens to be convinced that she managed to enter the friend list without notice.
The fact is that you can edit your Facebook privacy settings and remove the 'add friend' button. This privacy setting will allow you to send a message to the person and if he/she accepts your request, then that individual can send you a friend request instead.
Who Is Selene Delgado Lopez?
But, first, let's learn who is Selene Delgado Lopez. The name is very common in Spanish. People of that name can be found in Spain and Spanish speaking communities in South America. However, there was actually a person of that same name in Mexico and she disappeared 30 years ago in the 1990s. She was reported as a missing person on Mexican television channels like Canal 5.
However, with no information about her missing person's case and public records of her existence, Selene became an urban legend in Mexico with many believing that she was a computer-generated face. But her name recently appeared once again in a Canal 5 marketing campaign video.
The channel which is focused on children's program, grabbed attention earlier this year (2020) for posting a series of weird and disturbing videos on Twitter every day at 3 AM and removing them a few hours later. In one of those videos, Selene's name was also mentioned.
While the creator of the profile is unknown and the picture used in the profile is also not that of missing Selene, the mastermind of the hoax might have been inspired by Canal 5's videos. So far, the person in the photograph has also been unidentified.
It's in a way, similar to the Momo challenge hoax. But with Facebook's confusing privacy setting, it has managed to create a hoax and grab people's attention with people sharing her profile picture by over 18,000 times so far.
Should You Care?
The simple answer to the question is not really. But it has been witnessed in the past that viral posts have been turned into a malware scam like the ones on COVID-19 relief package that can indeed steal your data. All you have to do is click on such a message or forward.
"Hoaxes like this can have seemingly innocent effects at the beginning, but the truth is that at the speed they can spread. You have the possibility of misinformation being added which can cause it to go out of control," Jake Moore, a cybersecurity expert from ESET told Forbes.
