Will Twitter donate $1 for every retweet about baby with cancer? No. It's a hoax

by Graham Cluley on January 16, 2012 | 1 Comment

Filed Under: Featured, Social networks, Spam, Twitter

Tens of thousands of Twitter users have retweeted a message claiming that Twitter will donate $1 per retweet to a baby needing treatment for cancer.

Hoax: This baby has cancer, Twitter will donate $1 for every retweet.

This baby has cancer, Twitter will donate $1 for every retweet. <3

Unfortunately, it's codswallop. Quite why this particular user chose to post this picture is something that, frankly, is beyond my comprehension. Sadly, other Twitter users are helping to perpetuate the myth by retweeting it.

Tweets

Last week, a near-identical hoax spread between Facebook users, using the same photograph.

Sigh.. And now the hoax is being spread on Tumblr too..

Hoax: This baby has cancer, for every reblog Tumblr is going to donate 1 dollar

This baby has cancer, for every reblog Tumblr is going to donate 1 dollar, apparently likes don't count but i'm not sure, this baby's parents can't afford the surgery fee's so reblog and help save this child's life.

Please think before you retweet, you may simply be perpetuating a hoax. If you keep falling for internet scams, bogus Twitter messages and the like then please bookmark Naked Security or feel free to follow me at @gcluley and I'll do my best to keep you on the straight and narrow.

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One Response to Will Twitter donate $1 for every retweet about baby with cancer? No. It's a hoax

  1. Holly Blaha says:
    January 25, 2012 at 10:30 pm

    This "cancer baby" is my friend's son and he never had cancer. He's now 7 and had the hemangioma (non-cancerous) tumor removed years ago. He's healthy well, and happy.

    His parents didn't give permission for the photo to be used, and they would like very much for their privacy to be respected.

    Please help this family protect their son and spread the word about removing the picture!

    Thanks

    Reply Report comment

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About the author

Graham Cluley has worked in the computer security industry for more than 20 years, developing anti-virus software and doing quite a lot of talking about internet threats. He's won awards for his blogging, but is proudest of the text adventure games he wrote when he was still wearing short trousers. You can learn more about those (the games, not the trousers) at grahamcluley.com. Send Graham an email, subscribe to his updates on Facebook, follow him on Twitter and App.net, and circle him on Google Plus for regular updates.