Baby cancer and heart transplant hoaxes on Facebook

Facebook is a fertile breeding ground for hoaxes, spam and chain letters.

Users of the social network have to wade through a seemingly constant tide of messages shared by their well-meaning friends, making it hard to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Here’s an example that is spreading across Facebook right now, claiming that Facebook will pay three cents for every “Share” to help a baby with facial cancer.

This baby has cancer. For every share, FB donates 3 cents to help him.

I’ve even seen some Facebook users admit that they don’t know if the story is true or not, but still urge their online friends to share it “just in case”:

this child’s got a cancer. facebook is ready to pay 3 cent for every share. we don’t know is it true or not, but let’s everybody share. maybe it’s true and then… >SHARE< for this baby PLEASE SHARE, THANKS!

The message is, of course, a hoax. Facebook is not going to do…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.