On June 12, 2024, Snopes looked into a rumor claiming Joel Osteen — the leader of the Houston, Texas megachurch Lakewood Church — was leaving his ministry after event organizers kicked him out of a tribute for the late country-music star Toby Keith.

The rumor originated in at least one paid ad displayed on Meta’s social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. The headline of the ad read, “America Says Goodbye To Joel Osteen After The Announcement Was Made Public.” The text caption of the ad also said, “God had other plans for one of the most influential speakers of our time.”

However, this rumor about Osteen leaving his ministry and event organizers kicking him out of a Keith tribute was false. It was nothing more than the latest chapter in a long-running scam involving famous people, snake oil-like promises and CBD gummies.

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The false ad featured a link to an article on the scam website labrea.cfd. Scammers designed the story to resemble the design and layout of the Fox News website, FoxNews.com, to fool potential victims into falling for the scam.

The headline of the false and scammy article on labrea.cfd read, “Joel Osteen kicked out of Toby Keith tribute event: His Reason Why On Air.” The story misleadingly mentioned Fox News’ chief political analyst Brit Hume as its author, and began as follows: