APPLETON – Organizers of the annual Downtown Appleton Christmas Parade are reminding the public to be on the lookout for fraudulent Facebook posts misrepresenting the date and time of the parade, which will be held on College Avenue on Nov. 21 from 7 p.m. warning people.
Eric Stadler, who has served on the parade committee for more than 20 years, said the committee first noticed the fake event through its Facebook news feed, where he liked the fake Christmas parade event page. He said that’s when he saw “more and more people.” .
He said the committee was “concerned” that residents could be misled and show up at the wrong time or on the wrong day or miss important updates.
If you search for “Downtown Appleton Christmas Parade” on Facebook, you’ll get about 15 event results, many with the wrong date and time. For example, the most popular Facebook event with about 7,800 responses says the parade will be held on his November 11th. Others say the parade will be held at 5 a.m. or 7 a.m. instead of 7 p.m.
The official event page had only about 2,100 responses as of Wednesday. For up-to-date information and accurate times, Stadler on Wednesday urged residents to follow the parade’s official Facebook page, facebook.com/appletonchristmasparade, and the city’s website, appleton.org, for the latest information on the parade. I called out.
Although this is the first year the Christmas parade has had to deal with a flood of fake events, Stadler said other Fox Cities events, such as Oktoberfest, have been targeted this year as well. He also expressed concern that tracking these fake events could expose people’s Facebook friend lists to potential scammers.
According to the city’s website, more than 80,000 people attend the Downtown Appleton Christmas Parade each year, which is also broadcast and streamed on WFRV.
This year’s parade theme is “Christmas Music and Magic.” This year, 85 troops will march, including floats, dancers and more than 20 marching bands from northeastern Wisconsin and Michigan’s upper peninsula, according to the parade’s official Facebook page.
Rebecca Roloff is a breaking and trending news reporter in Northeast Wisconsin. For story tips or feedback, contact rloroff@gannett.com.