A Craigslist ad seeking child actors that circulated online as evidence of alleged fraud tied to Minnesota day care centers run by Somali residents was actually a prank, according to an Associated Press fact check published Monday.
The ad—no longer live on Craigslist—claimed that a day care center in Minneapolis’ Ventura Village neighborhood was hiring 20 child actors for three days to pose as attendees while it was vetted by the state. It also stated that the children would be paid $1,500 per day.
The AP reported that the underlying claim was false and that the ad was bait for an online prank show, not proof of fraud. In an interview with the AP, prank show cohost Joey LaFleur said the show is “Goofcon1,” describing it as a “funny show” where the team “do[es] pranks and stuff like that.”
LaFleur told the AP the ad was posted Jan. 1 in Craigslist’s Hennepin County, Minnesota section for general labor jobs. He said the prank show received “a ton of responses” and that he and his two cohosts planned to do a live show Saturday in which they would call people who expressed interest in the ad.
The fact check described how screenshots of the Craigslist post were then shared on multiple social media platforms as supposed evidence of wrongdoing. According to the AP, posts that included the screenshots gained tens of thousands of likes, shares and views.
One X post quoted in the AP fact check said the ad had been “discovered,” and it asserted that the poster requested 20 children to act as clients while the state observed them to determine whether it was a legitimate daycare. Another video posted on TikTok called the ad “100% serious,” with the AP reporting about 14,300 views.
In addition to being presented as a prank, LaFleur told the AP that Goofcon1 aims to “protect against predators” and to “call out conservatives” who, as he put it, “don’t care about fact checking.”