When something seems too good to be true, it probably is. But thousands of people on Facebook, it seems, didn’t get the memo…
A magical lottery post has been shared a load of times, claiming CEO Mark Zuckerberg would be dishing out $4.5 million to 1,000 completely random users.
Sadly, it was quite clearly a hoax. The message was shared in several different ways, with some claiming that it had been confirmed by media outlets so it was actually legit, when it quite clearly wasn’t.
Fortunately, common sense has prevailed to an extent with a simple Google search enough to identify the truth. However, despite the social media site dispelling the rumours some are still sharing it right now. Oh dear…
In his original announcement about giving away his wealth earlier this month he didn’t mention anything about a lottery for Facebook users, so it’s fair to say this was blatantly a sham.
This false message started circulating on December 1st, when Zuckerberg announced the birth of his daughter, Maxima.
Zuckerberg, and his wife Priscilla Chan announced Maxima’s birth with a photograph and a surprising pledge to give away 99 per cent of their Facebook shares – currently valued at $46 billion – to its work around the world.
In the Facebook post titled, ‘A letter to our daughter’, the couple revealed their plans to set up an initiative to support good causes.
It is still not clear who posted the original hoax, but the site has since said the claims are ‘untrue.’
Facebook wrote earlier this month:
Friends don’t let friends copy and paste memes. While Priscilla and Mark’s pledge to give money to improve the world is real, not everything you read on the internet is, and they’re not giving it away randomly. Be safe out there, sweepstakes seekers.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to have stopped people. But at least we have got a few hilarious memes out of it…
Thanks internet.
