The sick trick played on the world hours after Bondi shooting

In the wake of Bondi's horrific mass shooting, the world was inspired by a video of a mystery man snatching a gun from the hands of one of the terrorists.

In the wake of Bondi's horrific mass shooting, the world was inspired by a video of a mystery man snatching a gun from the hands of one of the terrorists.

Within hours the hero had falsely been identified as a 43-year-old IT professional named Edward Crabtree.

News website TheDaily - which is in no way affiliated to The Daily Aus - interviewed Crabtree about his actions that day.

LIVE UPDATES: Australia mourns as Bondi victims fight for life

The website was created hours after the Bondi shooting.

"I didn't think about it. I just acted," Crabtree said.

"I saw people running, I heard the shots, and I saw him reloading. I knew if someone didn't do something right then, more people were going to die."

The story was quickly shared around the world, and people the world over were singing Crabtree's praises.

But Crabtree doesn't exist, and from what it seems, neither does the journalist who wrote the story.

And despite attracting readers from all over the world, The Daily did not exist before the Bondi massacre took place.

The entire website, including the article, appears to be AI-generated.

The article has the veneer of legitimate news, but there are glaring errors.

Anthony Albanese is purported to have visited Crabtree in hospital "on Sunday morning", hours before the shooting took place.

The website links to other purported stories which do not work.

Reuters reported that thedailyaus.world was registered on December 14, the same day as the attack, according to who.is, opens new tab, a public domain lookup tool that shows when website addresses are registered, changed, and set to expire. thedailyaus.world could not be reached for comment when approached by Reuters.

READ MORE: CCTV captures dad and son alleged shooters heading for Bondi

In spite of this, X chatbot Grok cited the article when naming Crabtree as the Bondi hero.

When Grok was told the real name of the hero, Ahmed el Ahmed, it corrected the user and insisted Crabtree was the name.

Grok later blamed the mistake on a "reporting error or a joke referencing a fictional character".

Ahmed snatched a shotgun from the hands of one of the gunmen before he was himself shot.

He is now recovering in hospital.

"He doesn't regret what he did. He said he'd do it again. But the pain has started to take a toll on him," Ahmed's immigration lawyer Sam Issa told the Sydney Morning Herald after visiting the hero on Monday.

"He's not well at all. He's riddled with bullets. Our hero is struggling at the moment."

Ahmed is a tobacco shop owner and the father of two girls.

Since the video of his heroic act went around the world, more than $1.6 million has been donated to him.

READ MORE: Bondi hero would 'do it again' despite being 'riddled with bullets'

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