Fact check: False claims that Jeff Bezos is an alien, reptile draw on conspiracy theories

The claim: There is an alien’s face in Jeff Bezos’ neck, proving he’s not human

In early July, a canceled government contract with Microsoft made former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos even richer. This jump in the billionaire’s wealth inspired speculation and conspiracy theories on social media – some of which read like the plot of a science-fiction movie. 

A video posted to YouTube on July 14 promotes baseless claims that Bezos is an alien and reptile. The video, posted by YouTube user Gina Maria Colvin Hill and titled “I’m not sure if he is human!” has received thousands of views on Facebook. 

“That’s an alien in his neck,” she says in the video. “Look at that two eyes in his neck. This Jeff Bezos has got an alien in his neck.”

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She claims Bezos is wearing “a rubber mask on his head” and argues “his hands even look fake, too.”

“He’s a reptilian!” she says. “I don’t think he’s a human.” 

But there is no evidence an alien is living in Bezos’ neck – or that the billionaire is a reptile. This video references several outlandish, unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.

Conspiracy theories about reptilian people are baseless

Since the 1990s, conspiracy theorists have pushed the baseless idea that the world is secretly run by reptilian elites that mask themselves as humans.

Many affluent celebrities, like Mark Zuckerberg and Bezos, have been the targets of these claims. Over the past several years, the QAnon conspiracy theory, which baselessly claims the world is run by a secret cabal of cannibalistic, pedophile elites, has reinvigorated online suspicions about the wealthy and famous. 

Colvin Hill regularly posts videos pushing conspiracy theories involving wealthy people, zombies, vaccines and QAnon. These conspiracy theories are not supported by evidence, as USA TODAY and other media outlets have previously reported.

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USA TODAY reached out to Colvin Hill for comment. 

Bezos is not a reptile or alien

The YouTube video says Bezos is an alien because wrinkles in the skin of his neck appeared to show an alien’s face and the skin on his face was “too smooth.” But the full video tells a different story.

The footage of Bezos used in this video comes from his Sept. 13, 2018, interview with the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., a nonprofit business organization. Throughout the interview, when Bezos moves his neck, the wrinkles move with it. At several points, he extends his neck and there are no visible wrinkles, which Colvin Hill argued showed an alien’s face. 

According to Britannica, Bezos was born in 1964 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to teenage parents who were not wealthy at the time. He has lived in the public eye since Amazon launched in the 1990s.

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Throughout his public career, there have been no reputable reports questioning whether he was a human. 

USA TODAY could find no scientific evidence that it’s possible for reptiles or aliens to mask themselves as humans.

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that there is an alien’s face in Bezos’ neck, proving he’s not human. The video used as evidence shows Bezos’ neck wrinkles move as he talks. There is no evidence that Bezos is a reptile or alien – or that it is scientifically possible for another species to mask themselves as human. This claim draws on several unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.

Our fact-check sources:

• USA TODAY, July 9, Jeff Bezos’ net worth reaches a staggering $214 billion
• TIME, accessed July 19, The Reptilian Elite
• The Washington Post, June 15, 2016, ‘I am not a lizard’: Mark Zuckerberg is latest celebrity asked about reptilian conspiracy
• USA TODAY, Feb. 4, What is QAnon? What to know about the baseless, far-right conspiracy theory connected to Marjorie Taylor Greene
• The Economic Club of Washington, D.C., via YouTube, Sept. 20, 2018, Jeff Bezos, CEO and Founder, Amazon
• Britannica, accessed July 19, Jeff Bezos

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