Fake fan pages using AI and clickbait are misleading Buffalo Bills fans as misinformation continues to spread on social media.
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The excitement around the Buffalo Bills and the loyal “Bills Mafia” fan base is fueling more than just game-day hype — it’s also helping to drive a surge in fake fan pages powered by artificial intelligence and clickbait on social media.
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From viral posts that misquote players to completely fabricated stories, thousands of fans may unknowingly engage with and spread misinformation online. These pages often pose as part of the Bills Mafia community, with names like Bills Mafia Pride or Buffalo Cold Wind, but real fans do not run them, and they’re definitely not sharing real news.
“They post a hundred times, and one or two might blow up with thousands of likes,” said Riley Klock from Lancaster, who’s seen fake Bills content flood her feed. “You can see it and you’re like… there’s something off about that.”
Joe O’Hare, a Bills fan from Queens, is more direct: “It’s complete clickbait — and nothing that’s even true.”
Viral Misinformation That Feels Local
The posts are designed to be emotionally engaging or intriguing, often featuring AI-generated images or quotes that are plausible but false and often have mistakes.
“I love a quarterback with six fingers — it’s just what we need for the team,” O’Hare joked, poking fun at a common mistake made by AI image generators, where hands, feet, and limbs are often misfigured.
Take, for example, the claim made by The Blue Crew fan page that quarterback Josh Allen called the audible, “Mangia, Mangia, Mangia,” during their September 14 game against the New York Jets in honor of his grandmother.
During a September 16 press conference, however, Allen said the real reason behind the audible was an ode to the Italian restaurant Mangia in Orchard Park, not his grandmother.
“We’ve got a nice little restaurant here in Orchard Park that, you know, we frequent, frequented a lot last year, um, in the quarterback room. Um, so yeah, it’s just a, it’s an ode to one of our, our favorite spots,” Allen said.
Unfortunately, not every fan can spot the red flags. Klock added, “My parents sometimes will see things… where I’m like, yeah, that’s not real, you shouldn’t be listening to that, and same with my grandparents too.”
Why You’re Seeing These Pages
Yotam Ophir, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo who researches misinformation, says these AI-generated fan pages are part of a larger trend — and they’re built to manipulate algorithms and emotions.
“These images are designed specifically to attract attention,” Ophir said. “There is a good chance if you live in New York, you’re going to get Bills images. If you live in Philadelphia, it might be the same images but with [the] Eagles.”
Other examples of fake stories include:
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Josh Allen paying off student loan debt or school lunch debt
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Steve Tasker making it into the Hall of Fame (not true, as much as Bills Mafia would like it to be)
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Allen saving a puppy wearing a Patriots jersey — an AI-generated image with no basis in reality.
“We see all these spam posts of them putting some crazy post in the back, some crazy words to make you click on it. It’s either fake, garbage, or it’s propaganda,” said Eric Wingerton of Rochester, another fan 2 On Your Side spoke to.
Even though Facebook and Instagram — both owned by Meta — have rules against fake accounts and misinformation, Ophir says enforcement is weak.
“Meta is doing a pretty poor job screening and filtering these out,” he said. “Maybe they don’t even want to screen them out, as they do engage people and they do keep people around the site.”
A viral post like the false Mangia claim? It was shared over 1,000 times and liked more than 25,000 times. That kind of engagement keeps fake content in your feed — and out in front of more Bills Mafia members.
Successful pages, even if run by bots, can monetize this attention through ads and merchandise links. The more interaction they get, the more the social media algorithm boosts their content.
What Can Bills Mafia Do?
So what’s the solution? Ophir offered several tips.
“Wait before you act on emotion,” Ophir said. “That means we don’t have to comment or share everything you see online, we don’t have to share it with our family and friends. Before we do, double-check that it’s true. That way, we don’t stop the phenomenon per se, but we can reduce the impact of it and the spread.”
And while fake Bills content may seem harmless compared to misinformation in politics or global affairs, Ophir warns the tools behind these posts are only getting smarter.
As AI improves and content becomes harder to distinguish from reality, media literacy will be more important than ever.
The Global Investigative Journalism Network offers several tips and tools for spotting AI-generated content, including:
1. Anatomical and Object Failures – certain aspects of the human figure can be difficult for AI to replicate, look for inconsistencies with hands and feet, airbrushed “perfect skin” that appears to radiate its own light and not reflect it, trust your gut
2. Geometric Physics Violations – AI builds images like a collage artist, not a photographer. It understands visual elements but not the geometric and physical rules that govern how light, perspective, and shadows actually work in the real world. I.E. inconsistent shadows, objects like a flag pole vanishing behind subjects
3. Technical Fingerprints & Pixel Analysis – AI-generated images may include digital remnants caused by compressing an image or over-processing; these flaws may require software to verify or identify
4. Voice & Audio Artifacts – voice cloning technology can imitate anyone’s voice for a few seconds, but it can struggle with broader speech patterns and pacing, a wavering voice when emotional, etc.
5. Temporal and Contextual Logic – some AI content doesn’t understand time and space, I.E. George Washington and dinosaurs did not exist at the same time in history, nor were there electrical outlets in homes during the Roman Empire
6. Behavioral Pattern Recognition – when AI struggles to show accurate human behavior, emotion, or social dynamics in a certain setting, I.E. people smiling at a funeral
7. Intuitive Pattern Recognition – when something violates natural expectations built into human perception, the gut feeling
Bottom Line for Bills Fans: Be skeptical. Check your sources. And when in doubt, stick to trusted local news and official team channels.
