Little miracles happen every day. The one time your bus is running late is the same day you worried you were about to miss it. Or maybe you magically find a $20 bill on the ground after realizing that you left your wallet at home. But even if you have the best luck in the world, there are limits to what will happen to you. And sometimes the tales people tell online are just a little too tall.

Below, we’ve gathered some of our favorite pics from the Untrustworthy Poptarts subreddit, which features suspicious photos that seem like they must have been staged. From amazing artwork supposedly created by animals to funny things that people claim happened to them, the internet isn’t buying these pics, and neither are we. Enjoy scrolling through this list, and be sure to upvote all the posts that you can’t believe actually happened (because they didn’t).

#1 I Just Finished This 1000 Piece Puzzle And Every Single Piece Is Missing

Image credits: whereswaldo333

#2 Somebody Knocked Over My Fish Bowl And It Looks Oddly Like The Mona Lisa

Image credits: woodscradle

#3 A Lot Of Empty Space In That Box, Almost As If A Response Was Planned To Be There

Image credits: Cryptxx

We all know we can’t believe everything we read online. People have vivid imaginations, and the internet is an endless cesspool of information that requires no fact-checking to share. Improvements in photoshopping technology and the increase in people who know how to hack and code has only made the world wide web less reliable, so it’s important to always take things with a grain of salt. But at the same time, we want to believe that things we see on social media are true. What incentive do these people have to lie, anyway?

Well, apparently, plenty of people feel the need to channel their inner Pinocchio and share blatantly false stories online. And that’s where the Untrustworthy Poptarts subreddit comes in. This group, which has amassed an impressive 174k members since 2016, is “for all those posts that make you question whether OP really did find those things in that stuff they bought or found. In other words, we know you staged those screenshots, OP,” the page’s moderators write. “You’re fooling no one.” 

#4 Accidentally Knocked My Salt Over, Is This Bad Luck?

Image credits: Hsark2

#5 Why Is The Plastic Open?

Image credits: Rowan193

#6 Ooops Accidentally Lost This In My Shoe

Image credits: Hm_Moonlight

This popular subreddit got its name from a post on r/mildlyinteresting 6 years ago where someone claimed that they received three Poptarts in a package that’s only intended to contain two. It was immediately called out by viewers, with comments stating that it must have been staged. “How do we know you didn’t put a 3rd one in the pack?” But the post gained plenty of traction, receiving over 37k upvotes, so the Untrustworthy Poptarts subreddit was born. Today, there are only a few simple rules that members must follow, one of which being that Poptarts are not required. 

The mods also explain that the group is for untrustworthy content only, creativity is welcome, no photoshopping is allowed, no screenshots of stories are allowed, and members shouldn’t “be lame”. “Don’t be the 211th person to passive aggressively use the word ‘sure’ in your title, and it’ll make it much easier for someone to find your post by searching if you title it uniquely and/or descriptively,” the moderators explain.

#7 Guy Gets Called Out For Fake Xray

Image credits: reddit.com

#8 I Worked At Starbucks, You Couldn’t Fit All That In A Cup

Image credits: spacespunk

#9 No You Did Not Arrange It. They Fell Into That Shape When You Threw It

Image credits: ray_meister

Now, I want to give some of these people the benefit of the doubt and guess that a handful of the posts that end up on Untrustworthy Poptarts were satirically shared online. I don’t know how anyone could possibly believe that they were real, so they must be trying to trick readers. But unfortunately, they can’t all be like that, and the subreddit seems to have unlimited content. So there are many people out there just trying to get away with lying online. In fact, social media users might be even less authentic than you realized. According to a study by Custard.com examining 80 online daters, less than 20% of the participants said their Facebook pages portrayed a “completely accurate reflection” of who they are. 

#10 And So It Begins

Image credits: AskMe503

#11 My Tea Fell And It Looks Like A Dinosaur

Image credits: WhisperingThunder123

#12 Hmm

Image credits: Vic-Kovak

Another 2016 study featuring social media users found that less than one third of them say they’re always honest online, and up to 90% of them suspected that others are sometimes being dishonest about their age, gender, activities, interest, and/or appearance. It seems that misleading others on the internet is more of the rule than the exception. But for some reason, social media sites like Facebook appear to be the most honest places online, compared to dating sites and other online chat rooms.

“The reason for this is because these social media sites, we posited, have the most links to the outside world,” Michelle Drouin, a psychology professor at Indiana University Purdue Fort Wayne and one of the authors of the study, told CBC News. “It’s a lot harder to lie about your gender or your age, for example, when you have pictures of yourself, pictures of your family, and most importantly, shared acquaintances.”  

#13 He Could Have Totally Landed Like That When Flipped

Image credits: Dr_Creepster

#14 [madlad Not Found]

Image credits: NootingPenguin

#15 Sad Cringe

Image credits: lehtomaeki

And when it comes to why people tend to mislead others on the internet, Drouin says it’s typically an attempt to make ourselves look better. “They wanted to be cooler. They wanted to be more beautiful. They wanted to be sexier. They wanted to give an appearance of a life that was better than the life that they were leading,” she told CBC News. But that wasn’t the only motivation. “Others said that they lied because they just thought everyone lies online. This is the place where lying is standard,” Drouin added.

#16 Yep Sure Thing, Julie!

Image credits: RhythmicRaccoon

#17 Yeah. That’s How They Ship Locks

Image credits: ScaredGuy69

#18 Sure He Doesn’t Op

Image credits: reddit.com

Michael Arceneaux wrote a piece for NBC News titled ‘You’re not a Kardashian, so stop lying about your life on social media’ where he breaks down how annoying it can be to see our loved ones misleading viewers online. “Maybe you’re not the kind of person who wants to become an ‘influencer,’ but just someone who wants to come across as having a much better life than you claim to have,” Arceneaux writes. “Still, please consider the people in your lives: They have to wake up every morning and scroll through your lies hour after hour. It’s exhausting rolling our eyes that hard. (I know because I needed extra doses of caffeine just to get through this essay.)”

#19 It’s Time To Stop

Image credits: reapsnek

#20 Mmmm If You Say So

Image credits: zgold2192

#21 Or You Could Have Done This Yourself

Image credits: Nyar99

Arceneaux goes on to write for NBC News, “Still, even if you don’t consider the feelings of others (for shame), think about yourself: You are probably being clowned for every new fallacious posting,” Arceneaux goes on to write for NBC News. “You may not see the screenshots captioned with ‘Look at this liar!’ in group chats in which you’re not included, but believe me, your posts are there. I am not a fan of schadenfreude, but sometimes the lies are so bad that even I end up dabbling in that dark art before I mean to, which leads to me feeling immense guilt later. (As someone who grew up Catholic, I don’t need any more guilt in my life, so please, I’m begging you, stop the lies so I can’t enjoy making fun of them.)”

#22 Looks To Me Like You Are Working At Wendy’s And You Took The Photo At The Prep Station. “Untrustworthy Nugget”

Image credits: kwismexer

#23 Why Is There Nothing On The Cookie

Image credits: Gamercrew999

#24 3-Year-Old Cooking Prodigy

Image credits: jconl

There might not be any legal requirements to be honest online, but there are definitely benefits to being forthcoming. For one thing, people won’t be shocked or feel catfished when you meet them in person. You look exactly how they expected you to, and you are actually capable of having an intelligent conversation about the hobbies you claimed you participate in. This can also be useful in job interviews because, yes, it’s very possible that they checked out your social media prior to meeting you. Nobody wants to be caught off guard, so the best way to portray an authentic version of yourself online is to just be yourself online. Nobody will be disappointed if your cat isn’t capable of spilling water in a pattern that looks like a Van Gogh painting, I promise.  

#25 Puts Headphones On A Dog And Tells Outlandish Lies About It

Image credits: malk500

#26 Found This In My High School Bathroom

Image credits: x_Trip

#27 Yep Totally Didn’t Write The Same Thing Twice

Image credits: CanadianKleep

At this point, I don’t know what to trust anymore on the internet. But it is nice to know that I know what not to trust, and that’s screenshots like these. I love a great fictional story as well, but I would never try to pass one off as the truth. We hope you’re enjoying this list of suspicious screenshots, pandas. Keep upvoting the ones you find particularly unbelievable, and feel free to share your thoughts on these ‘untrustworthy Poptarts’ in the comments below. Then, if you’re looking for another Bored Panda piece featuring things that definitely didn’t happen, contrary to what the people sharing them would say, check out this article next!

#28 -Management And Definitely Not Cody

Image credits: omza

#29 Complete With Adult Handwriting

Image credits: MattyBfucks

#30 “Whoops I Gave Him Coffee Instead Of Chocolate Milk!”

Image credits: Giraffe-Attack

#31 Definitely Didn’t Bite It Himself

Image credits: send-cats-asap

#32 Hmmm I’m Sure You Did

Image credits: enemy369

#33 It’s Not Staged At All

Image credits: SonofShenadoah

#34 Yeah… No

Image credits: Otter_Nation

#35 Looks Like They Dipped Their Thumb In Koolaid

Image credits: jaktyp

#36 You Can’t Tell The Difference In Weight Between A Metal Skillet And A Tennis Racquet?

Image credits: brofession

#37 That’s Not How Braille Works

Image credits: foodandsudoku

#38 Was It Now

Image credits: Cryptxx

#39 Seems Legit

Image credits: rambleon4ever

#40 My Little Bro Totally Ripped My Expensive, Rare Card. Here’s The Back Of It As Proof

Image credits: VirginSexPet

#41 And The Restaurant Is Making These Orders And Delivering Them

Image credits: Eossly

#42 Cause It Makes Sense To Post This Outside Where Customers Can Read It

Image credits: Cerebusfire17

#43 Sure Didn’t Notice The Several Thousand Dollar Tab At The Checkout Screen

Image credits: mcdanough

#44 Ditto, I Choose You!

Image credits: venonatnut

#45 Untrustworthy Hot-Pockets. Only One Of Them Is Even Cooked

Image credits: Gnarly_Sarley

#46 Not Like There’s Another Open Bag Of Bread To The Left Or Anything

Image credits: camscams123

#47 This Poptart Seems A Little Suspect

Image credits: PackieKnowsBest

#48 This Is How I Package Everything I Ship

Image credits: Break_these_cuffs

#49 Oddly Specific Bio

Image credits: RichHomieJake

#50 Removed The Safety Sheath, Tip Guard, And Tie Down And Then Poked An 8” Wüsthof Chef’s Knife Through My Amazon Box For This Picture

Image credits: UrHeftyLeftyBesty

#51 On My Facebook Newsfeed

Image credits: itsrachel_

#52 Yeah They Give A Shit About What You Order

Image credits: SavageMrrr

#53 Yeah, Sure

Image credits: reddit.com

#54 Ah Yes

Image credits: reddit.com

Source: boredpanda.com