On March 16, 2024, the Abandoned Things Facebook page posted a story about three explorers who discovered a dark and mysterious house. The story featured an interesting picture of what looked to be a dark, mysterious and ornately-designed house that might have been inspired by Gothic architecture.
The same picture was also previously posted on the Abandoned and Strange Things Facebook page in November 2023.
An article link attached in a comment under the post led to a story on xnews6.com with the simple headline of "Creepy Abandoned House!"
Snopes found additional postings of the story and picture on the websites infinitmedia.info, viralnews31.com and abandonedlife.info. The picture was also previously posted on several Facebook and Instagram pages, as well as on LinkedIn, Pinterest and X.
We looked into the purported authenticity of the story and picture and were able to nail down answers about both.
The 'Creepy Abandoned House' Story
The story on xnews6.com was published as follows:
Nestled on the outskirts of a forgotten town, an abandoned house stood frozen in time. Its weathered facade loomed ominously, windows like vacant eyes staring into the surrounding darkness.
Curiosity seized a daring trio one moonlit night. Armed with flickering flashlights, they pushed open the creaking door, revealing a musty interior adorned with cobwebs. A chill crept through the air as they explored, shadows dancing at the periphery of their vision.
In a forgotten room, they uncovered remnants of a tragic past—a family torn apart by sorrow. As they delved deeper, the house seemed to awaken. Doors slammed shut, and whispers echoed through the desolate halls. The trio, hearts pounding, sought an escape.
In the heart of the house, a hidden chamber revealed cryptic symbols. The air thickened as ghostly apparitions materialized, recounting a tale of woe. Terrified, the trio fled, the echoes of spectral wails haunting their every step.
As they emerged into the moonlit night, the abandoned house resumed its silent vigil. The town slept, oblivious to the darkness concealed within the creepy abode—a secret graveyard of forgotten memories.
However, there was no truth to any part of this story, as some readers might have been able to gather from the mention of "ghostly apparitions" supposedly materializing in front of the explorers' eyes. Further, the story did not mention any of the explorers' names, the location of the purported house or any other identifying details.
We scanned the story with an artificial-intelligence detection tool on gptzero.me. "We are highly confident this text was AI-generated," the website's results read, giving the text a score of 97% likely to be AI. A scan on copyleaks.com also found the story was likely generated by AI.
The Picture of the 'Creepy Abandoned House'
The picture accompanying the story was quite striking, as it looked to have been captured from a low angle in a location fit for a horror movie. However, just like the story, the picture appeared to also have been the creation of AI.
A scan with fakeimagedetector.com returned the result of "looks like [a] computer-generated or modified image." Similarly, a scan of the picture with the AI-image detection tool aiornot.com showed the result of "this is likely AI."