Black eye kids derived from 4444444444?

You probably heard of the Japanese horror movie Ju-On:



which was then re-made in the States under the "Grudge" moniker. The movie features a monster character that is essentially a Japanese BEK.

I find it a strange coincidence that the BEK phenomenon was first reported at about the time the movie "4444444444" (a pre-cursor of Ju-On) was released in 1998. I personally think a powerful image from a horror movie caught imagination of people and all this "sightings" were subsequently invented.