A new hoax is spreading between Facebook users, in the mistaken belief that sharing a picture of a sick boy in intensive care will grant him a heart transplant.
If this little boy gets 100 shares he can get his heart transplant for free
Of course, the message is nonsense - and simply clogs up Facebook users' walls and newsfeeds. Think about it - is it really likely that a child will be given a heart transplant simply because enough people like a photograph on Facebook?
Another version of the hoax reads as follows:
I NEED AT LEAST 10000 SHARES.
Plz share..... Heart surgery free of cost for children (0-10 Yrs) Ph : 080-28411500 It might save some1's life...! Sharing takes a second... in bangalore INDIA
More than likes, sharing can help !
According to the Urban Legends blog on About.com, the telephone number belongs to the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Whitefield in Bangalore, India. The clinic gives free medical assistance, and does not base surgery upon anything related to Facebook.
If a friend of yours shares a message with you like this on Facebook, remind them about the importance of not spreading chain letters and suggest that they inform all of their friends that they were mistaken (maybe they could link to this article if anybody needs convincing?).
Don't forget you should join the Sophos Facebook page, where we not only debunk hoaxes and chain letters, but we also keep you up-to-date on the latest rogue applications, scams and malware attacks threatening Facebook users.
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How can people get away with such hoaxes as this - its just absolutely shameful!, its all beyond any form of joke. Now I am just horrified to see what these scammers/spammers/hoaxers can do to fool people!
They can get away with it due to the ignorance of the majority of social network users. Seriously, who actually believes that facebook sharing can magically present free heart surgery to a child? In any case, has facebook got a collection of healthy hearts located in it's data centre?
Log into facebook and sign up to a cyber lobotomy.
They're Sick!
Karma is what is called for here... what goes around comes around
How can people get away with such hoaxes
The answer to that is easy Facebook has More than 800 million active users
out of that number about 799.5 million are idiot's
Idiots who put apostrophes because an S appears in a word, you mean?
Pathetic that someone would start this but even more so that people are stupid enough to share it. I would automatically unlike anyone who shared this!
Every time I read one of these stories I wonder what on Earth ever possessed me to have a Facebook account, and why it took me so long to dump it.
Hey guys, I came across this post: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=207402742...
It seems to be the same kind of spam message. Can you check it out?
Thanks :)
I wonder who that little boy in the pic really is, and how did someone get hold of his pic???
OKay, so I'm an idiot with a heart but sometimes you have to have hope that its not a hoax and people still care for others. There is always the chance that its legit. Guess I chose poorly. Thanks for the warning.
I can't believe anyone is goofy enough to believe this crap .... common sense would tell you any doctor wouldn't base their services on a social networks "shares" or "likes" what nonsense.
The "little boy" in the pic is actually a little girl called Anna. In the pic she is actually recovering from heart surgery which was carried out in Odessa, Ukraine in 2008.