Fact Check: Is Oprah trying to buy thousands of properties damaged by hurricanes Helene and Milton?

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Rumor has it Oprah Winfrey is supposedly on a mission to buy up thousands of properties damaged by recent hurricanes.

The claim has been making rounds online since October, with folks convinced that she’s scooping up land for “next to nothing” in areas hit hard by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.

Facebook lit up like a Christmas tree with the rumors, with many adding their own spin on things - calling her everything from “criminal” to “the face of evil.”

Oprah Winfrey's alleged land grab

It all started when a post from a page called America's Last Line of Defense made waves. “Oprah Winfrey is trying to buy up tens of thousands of damaged properties in hurricane-affected areas. ‘She’s offering us next to nothing to sell.’” This little nugget spread like wildfire, and before you know it people were adding their two cents.

One person wrote, “Better DEW what they say or else!”—a comment hinting at those out-there conspiracy theories about “Directed Energy Weapons” (DEWs). Yep, people actually think lasers from space are sparking these disasters, and now Oprah’s out to cash in on the aftermath.

Emotions were high. Comments like “CRIMINAL,” “Yea wonder why,” and “She is the face of evil” showed up everywhere, with users suspicious of her motives.

But here’s the kicker: America’s Last Line of Defense is a known satire and parody page. They slap their posts with a “Satire/Parody” label and even spell out that “Nothing on this page is real.” 

Still, people missed the memo and treated it like real news. One person brought up an old conspiracy. "And they called that storm and the lithium a conspiracy theory," they wrote. "I said if the checks come then it's not a theory and now I have been proven right again! I'm getting exhausted by the winning!"

They were referencing a past hoax that claimed the US government wanted land in North Carolina for lithium mining.

Similar rumors about Oprah Winfrey circulated after Maui wildfire

It didn’t help that some folks already had Oprah on their conspiracy radar. After the 2023 wildfires in Maui, it was reported that she was buying hundreds of acres of land from local residents who lost everything. And when this latest story popped up, some Facebook detectives just knew there had to be a connection.

One person said, "I used to love Oprah but got a bad gut feeling many years ago and I don't want anything to do with her because of it!" Another user declared, “I think she did that in Maui when they had the fire there.”

Even the fact-checking site Snopes had to step in. They’ve debunked similar claims about Oprah before, like the tall tale that her charity project “Coats for Kids” supposedly raised $140 million and only ended up giving out 310 jackets.

It’s a classic case of people assuming the worst, and thanks to satirical pages like America’s Last Line of Defense it’s way too easy to turn these “stories” into “facts” in people’s minds.

Who are the 'Taters'?

So, why does America’s Last Line of Defense keep putting out these kinds of posts? They’re on a mission to troll, particularly a crowd they’ve nicknamed “taters” - a term they use for conservative-leaning followers who they believe will buy into these exaggerated stories.

The Dunning-Kruger Times (another satire site linked to this network) describes “taters” as “fragile, frightened, mostly older Caucasian Americans” who “believe nearly anything.”

"'Taters' are the conservative fans of America's Last Line of Defense. They are fragile, frightened, mostly older caucasian Americans. They believe nearly anything. While we go out of our way to educate them that not everything they agree with is true, they are still old, typically ignorant, and again — very afraid of everything," the site states.

"Our mission is to do our best to show them the light, through shame if necessary, and to have a good time doing it, because…old and afraid or not, these people are responsible for the patriarchy we're railing so hard against. They don't understand logic and they couldn't care less about reason. Facts are irrelevant. BUT…they do understand shame," it adds.

At the end of the day, it’s easy to see why this latest Oprah rumor spiraled so fast. People love a good conspiracy, especially when it involves the super-rich allegedly profiting off a disaster. And when you’ve got a public figure like Oprah — who’s not shy about spending her wealth — that’s all it takes for a fake story to feel real.

So, is Oprah actually trying to buy up all this hurricane-hit land? Absolutely no.