It’s once again time to put to rest a ridiculous rumor that’s been circulating around Facebook about, well, Facebook
A hoax “chain letter” status suggests that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is planning on giving away $4.5 million apieve each to 1,000 Facebook users for simply changing their status (or for any other reason). Here’s what the message looks like:
As confirmed by 20-year veteran online debunking site Snopes, this is total garbage.
Why on Earth are people falling for this? What made this seemingly obvious “something for nothing” scam more plausible than other promises of free cash, trips and merchandise was the fact that after the birth of his daughter Max, Zuckerberg did in fact pledge to give away 99% of his company stock (currently worth $45 billion) to various charities during his lifetime, as explained in this video:
Of course, a few troubling questions remain. Why did Facebook users believe they’d be receiving so much for doing so little? And why did they think $45 billion divided by 1000 was $4.5 million when it’s actually $45 million.
The answer is simple: People fall for Facebook chain letters all the time, like this phony privacy notice that invokes the ‘Rome Statute’ to protect your digital assets. Here’s a good rule of thumb: copying and pasting a status doesn’t do shit, ever. Now go about your business.