Have you heard that Mark Zuckerberg is giving away the part of his 45 billion dollar fortune to Facebook users who share a “thank you” message? Better log in and start sharing, right? Well, actually no. It turns out this is, believe it or not, a hoax!
There is more than one variation to this hoax floating around, but all seem to be convincing enough for users to fall for it. The basic version states that Zuckerberg is giving out $4.5 million to 1,000 random Facebook users who copy and paste a certain thank you status on their profile page.
The most popular version of this Facebook hoax which is floating around is this one:
“According to Good Morning America, Not a hoax! Mark Zuckerberg has announced that he is giving away $45 billion of Facebook stock. What you may not have heard is that he plans to give 10% of it away to people like YOU and ME! All you have to do is copy and paste this message into a post IMMEDIATELY. At midnight PST,Facebook will search through the day’s post and award 1000 people with $4.5 million Each as a way of saying thank you for making Facebook such a powerful vehicle for connection.”
This hoax grew it’s legs not long after Zuckerberg announced that his daughter had just been born and that he would pledge to give away 99% of his Facebook shares.
Here’s what the second most popular version of this hoax looks like:
“THANK YOU, MARK ZUCKERBERG, for your forward-thinking generosity! And congrats on becoming a dad!
Mark Zuckerberg has announced that he is giving away $45 billion of Facebook stock. What you may not have heard is that he plans to give 10% of it away to people like YOU and ME! All you have to do is copy and paste this message into a post IMMEDIATELY and tag 5-10 of your friends. At midnight PST, Facebook will search through the day’s posts and award 1000 people with $4.5 million EACH as a way of saying thank you for making Facebook such a powerful vehicle for connection and philanthropy.
I hope someone I know gets a piece of the pie — let me know if you do!!!”
It is true that Zuckerberg will be giving away his shares as an act of philanthropy. It isn’t yet clear where exactly the money will be going, only that it won’t be going to you.
Zuckerberg is out to help mankind and no doubt will be giving his fortune to worthy causes. But enabling you to buy a brand new sports car while allowing you an early retirement is simply not one of them. Sorry!
