“I’m Teresa Fidalgo, I died 27 years ago. If you don’t send this message to 20 people, I’ll sleep by your side forever. If you don’t believe me, search me up.”
This is a message that started circulating in 2003 and has been periodically resurfacing ever since, inflicting fear among social media users around the world.
Spooked up by the message’s content? Our guess is that you’re probably here looking for answers. Well, look no further as I’m going to uncover the legend of Teresa Fidalgo throughout this article.
The Story of Teresa Fidalgo
The Teresa Fidalgo frenzy started in 2003 when a video shot by David Rebardao took the internet by storm.
The video followed three friends, David, Tiago, and Tania, as they set off scouting a location for their horror short film, Virus. The trio spotted a girl wearing a white dress standing along the road, and they decided to give her a ride.
The girl, clearly in distress, remained silent the whole ride. However, as the friends near a specially dark spot along the mountainous road, the girl broke her silence and told them that that was the spot where she had an accident and died almost two decades ago.
Shocked by the girl’s words, David spans the camera back to reveal Teresa’s now deformed face, before a bone-chilling scream echoes, and their car crashes.
When the police arrived at the accident scene, David was the only one alive. They found Tania and Tiago’s dead bodies, but there was no trace of Teresa.
The subsequent police investigation revealed a similar car crash that took place in 1983 at the same location where a young woman named Teresa Fidalgo lost her life.
The Origin of the Teresa Fidalgo Ghost Story
Teresa Fidalgo was a Portuguese teenager that lost her life in 1983 in a vehicle crash near Sentra, Portugal.
The Teresa Fidalgo ghost myth follows the lady in white ghost stories. These types of folk tales present a beautiful lady that dies after suffering severe losses in her life, typically the loss or betrayal of a lover.
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The lady’s ghost usually appears at night in secluded places. She then threatens unsuspecting people who stray into her place that she would inflict serious harm on their loved ones if they don’t follow her commands.
The Truth Behind the Teresa Fidalgo Story
It seems illogical that the ghost of a girl who’s been dead for almost two decades would care if you share or ignore a message on social media.
However, many social media users fear that their loved ones will be harmed and send the hoax message forward, creeping out more people and further propagating the scary urban folk tale.
In fact, the US cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency released a link describing how to identify an urban folk tale hoax on social media in an effort to put an end to such fear-inducing cycles.
David Rebarado, the one holding the camera and filming the three friends’ encounter with Teresa’s ghost, is in reality the video’s producer. David revealed to a local Portuguese TV channel one that the story had been scripted and filmed as part of the creepy show video series he has on his youtube channel.
In 2014, David uploaded a sequel video titled ‘Teresa Fidalgo ghost strikes again‘.
The sequel video takes place on the night of the 25th of April 2008. We follow Paolo, Xana, and Xaninha as they walk to a bar.
Paolo stops the trio and tells them that he just saw something move nearby. Ignoring Paolo’s concerns, Xana and Xaninha leave him behind and move forward.
However, Paolo sees the figure in the white veil again. This time he doesn’t have enough time to call his friends, as the veiled woman starts to pursue him.
The video finally cuts off as the lady in white attacks Paolo.
Paolo’s wife reveals to the audience that her husband didn’t survive the veiled woman’s attack. She later pleads with the viewers to help her, since the recorded video of the attack isn’t enough to help the authorities solve the mystery.
What to Do if You Get a Message
Our short answer is to ignore it. Whenever you get a message about Teresa Fidalgo or any other similar message, the best thing that you can do is to take no notice of it.
Now that you’ve seen that the whole story was scripted, you don’t have to take any of those threats seriously. Ignore and delete the message without passing it forward to anyone else. This way, you’d keep the creepy message from spreading and scaring other social media users.
You should also help in educating your close circle of friends. Teach them to identify an internet hoax and urge them to stop the propagation of such messages.
To Conclude
Receiving a cursed message can be frightening, especially if you don’t know the truth behind it. This fear can persuade you to pass the message forward to unsuspecting people.
Now that you’ve read our article featuring the truth behind one of the most widely circulated urban legend tales, you won’t be petrified by the ‘I’ll sleep by your side forever’ line, and you’ll be able to stop the fear cycle.
