These are dramatic images.
Images that cause fear and panic: This video was watched on Telegram and Twitter tens of
thousands of times.
The dam named Wuppertalsperre is said to have broken.
But that is false.
I'm standing in front of the dam and as you can see it is not broken.
The video actually shows a flooded mine in Inden, more than 100 kilometers from here.
There were reports of other broken dams as well but most of them were wrong.
This was the case in Sinzig.
The fire brigade had to drive through the town and calm people down.
Even the police were warning online against the fake messages.
And that despite the catastrophe being bad enough already.
More than 170 people lost their lives in Germany alone.
Many more are still missing, and the damage is in the millions.
The fake news caused further damage.
It panicked people and stirred up anger.
We will show you some examples but above all how to spot them.
For example, this image that went viral on social media.
A car is drowning in the floods, and in the back window there is a sticker with a curse
word directed at Greta Thunberg.
If you look closely, you can see the image is manipulated.
While zooming in, the sticker looks odd.
A reverse image search reveals the truth.
The photograph was originally published in the German newspaper BILD – without a sticker
on the car.
Photographer David Young confirms: the sticker is a fake.
Many people were fooled by it, even a big environmental protection movement.
So be careful with the content you share.
Many were speechless in this case: A fake police car was making its rounds through the
flooded area.
We could locate the area: Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler.
A lot has been destroyed there, and in the chaos of the situation many confused the car
for a real police team.
It made announcements that the number of rescue workers were being reduced.
False, as was confirmed by the police in Koblenz.
According to our research there are several such fake police cars in Germany.
And these appear again and again in connection with the lateral thinker scenes in Germany,
which is actually known for protests against the COVID restrictions.
Or the case of the hydroelectric power station Braunau-Simbach at the Austrian-German border.
Here a user was claiming that all the locks had been opened and masses of water were flowing
towards the southern German city of Passau.
Misleading.
The video actually does show the hydroelectric power station Braunau-Simbach.
The clip reached a lot of people on Telegram – and caused worry.
But fact is, the hydroelectric power station does not have the function of a dam.
In case of rising water level, the water just has to flow through it.
So, the locks were not just opened recklessly in this case.
"The tidal wave was not getting stronger.
For the city of Passau the situation was not getting worse".
And these fakes even went a step further: With calls for donations, imposters misused
the willingness to help by the population.
Unfortunately, some were wrong.
"The Cologne police have opened an investigation against suspected fraudsters.
They allegedly copied the photo of a user affected by the floods from Facebook and misused
it for their own purposes and asked for donations."
So how do we know if a call for donation is trustworthy?
Watch out for an official stamp of approval, like this one in Germany.
And also look at the person and organization very carefully.
Have you spotted fakes regarding the flooding in Germany?
Write them in the comments or send us an email to factchecking@dw.com