Metro Editor Marly Reichert was puzzled by the phone call to our newsroom last week from a person offering a news tip about a local pilot who supposedly died in a military aircraft crash.

The caller was adamant that pilot Lt. Col. Scott Julian of Cortland, whose obituary we carried recently, died Dec. 4 in a C-130H crash just outside of Warren.

We frequently get news tips from well-meaning callers. We take the information and typically assign a reporter to dig into it. Sometimes the tips pan out; but frankly, the stories don’t always turn out to be exactly as the callers report.

After she hung up, Marly and other staff members began discussing the news tip, wondering how on earth it could be true, considering that neither we nor any other local media had reported an aircraft crash. How could this ever have gotten by all of us?

Still, I’ve been around enough to know that tips with such great detail often have some semblance of truth that has to be fleshed out. So, we make calls and ask questions.

As they say, after all, “Where there is smoke, there is fire.” Right?

Nope. Not this time. There was no fire. Not even a flicker. Just lots and lots of smoke that began to thicken.

A quick search of the internet turned up news posts on obscure and unknown websites reporting the death of Julian and “four other crew members on board, who also died in the crash.”

The vague stories attributed information to equally vague sources like the “Air Force Reserve Command,” adding that the Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board and local authorities were working to determine factors and circumstances of the crash. The names of individual spokespeople or investigators were not included.

That’s because the crash never happened.

It turned out to be just one more example of fake news posted on unreputable websites and then shared among social media posts.

Senior Master Sgt. Bob Barko, public affairs superintendent for the 910th Airlift Wing at the Youngstown-Warren Air Reserve Station, answered our question succinctly: “It’s patently false.” He said he already had been contacted by several reputable news organizations, like ours, following up on the rumors and innuendo that continued to spread.

The fact is that Lt. Col. Julian wasn’t even on duty when he died. Instead, some faceless, inhumane web rat preyed on the obituary in what I can only suspect was an attempt to drive up page views on some website somewhere.

The act, which I must admit is completely new to me, even has a name: “Pirate obituaries.”

“It’s some bot-generated story in total,” Barko told our reporter. “If there had been an accident, our regulations require that we put out a press release within an hour for things like that.”

To add to the horrible situation being experienced by grieving family members, Barko said people from outside of the community have been re-writing obituaries with tragic storylines to attract readers and coerce them into purchasing products from websites.

Clickbait is how they do that. It’s a practice used by unreputable organizations to draw in unsuspecting readers, hoping to lure them in with heart-wrenching stories like the death of a brave and respected member of our U.S. military.

Clickbait is enticing, typically deceptive or sensationalized text designed to lure readers to click on the linked content.

The practice is so common that even The Associated Press moves weekly stories called “Not Real News” in attempts to educate readers and debunk false online claims.

So, what’s the takeaway here? Obtaining news from unverified sources in so-called “news stories” circulating online or on social media is dangerous. Unless it’s well-sourced and balanced, such as news reported in reputable media like this newspaper, don’t believe everything you read.

And as for the real story? Lt. Col. Julian, a 1995 graduate of Liberty High School, held a bachelor’s degree from Youngstown State University and a Master’s of Military Operational Art and Science degree. He was a member of the United States Air Force, stationed at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station and served as commander of the 910th Force Support Squadron. He also was a board member of the American Red Cross.

He died Dec. 4, leaving behind two children.