Fake fundraising efforts for the Haiti disaster are spreading like wildfire on Facebook. Dozens of fan pages have been set up, urging users to join and promising a $1 donation for each member. One group this weekend attracted 1.5 million members before it was disabled.
Meanwhile, during the weekend, Facebook officials had to beat back a rumor that the firm had promised a $1 donation for every member that changed their status to include a message about Haiti.
"This status is being tracked, the owners of facebook have confirmed they will send $1 to the rescue fund for the Haiti earthquake disaster for everytime this is cut and paste as a status," read one form of the bogus claim. "You only have to leave it for a minimum of 1 hour. Lets all do our bit to help."
Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said the firm took aggressive steps to quell the rumor. It posted a note on its blog on Saturday warning about the bogus message.
"Beware of scams and hoaxes and ensure that your donations for Haiti get to the right places," the social networking company wrote on its blog. Contrary to a current meme, Facebook is not donating $1 for statuses, however we are sharing reputable resources via the "Other Pages" tab on the Global Disaster Relief on Facebook Page."
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2 comments:
Do not donate! Save America first! People want to donate and help OTHER countries but their own. Look at our homless rate. Look at our kids who need help. Look at our education. Look at our under paid officers. Look at our poverty. No one wants to set up a text message fund to help OUR homeless and hungry.
Save America First!!!!
It amazes me the number of people who fall for these scams all the time.
People anymore really don't have any common sense, do they!?
I'm not going to put myself in a position of telling others who they should or should not donate too but some people are just plain STUPID!
Facebook is a breeding ground for scams folks!
One of my "friends" two days ago posted that fake amber alert on my page. She didn't even bother to check to see if it was real first.
I'll bet she does next time though after we all pounced on her!
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