Nonsense: French farmer did not find €4 billion gold reserve

Many news websites reported on Thursday that a French farmer had stumbled upon a gold reserve worth as much as €4 billion. But that news turned out to be untrue.

According to the false report, a 52-year-old farmer from the French region of Auvergne saw something glistening in a riverbed on his property. This is supposedly how he found the immense amount of gold. However, this now turns out to be fake news.

The news report quickly went viral, and even the American media picked it up. According to the French website ‘L’Internaute’, the report first appeared on 19 April on ‘La Plasturgie’, an unreliable site that also provides advice on insurance, among other things. According to L’Internaute, the website has been publishing false articles for months.

(FVDV - Source: L'Internaute - Illustration: ©Unsplash)