Fake Facebook Lottery Winner Suckers Thousands - PC Magazine

Have we really reached that point?

By that, we mean: Has the general, Facebook-connected world really sunken to the level of liking or commenting posts in an attempt to win a huge share of a fellow user's now-fake lottery winnings?

At least, that's the latest bit of fun passing around the social network these past few days. Prompted by this past week's $587.5 million Powerball jackpot – the second-highest total in the lottery's history – a Facebook user named Nolan Daniels decided to post up a picture of his "winning" lottery ticket. Anyone sharing the image would be invited to Daniels' personal lottery, where he would allegedly give one person a cut ($1 million) of his allegedly significant winnings.

Of course, more than 200,000 Facebook users shared said image.

They shared an image of Daniels, holding his winning ticket, with the winning numbers printed in a haphazard – if not seemingly random fashion on the ticket itself.

According to Powerball's official FAQ: " The tickets print the white ball numbers (the first five numbers) in numerical order."

Oops.

And that's aside from the fact that legitimate winners are already stepping up to claim their share of the big payout – one couple from Missouri, reports Gawker's Adrian Chen, and an unidentified Arizona man who was allegedly captured on a gas station's surveillance camera right when he realize he had won a part of the Powerball lottery.

Of course, Daniels isn't the only Facebook user getting into the fun. As seems to be the case whenever the large potential payouts starts hitting the news with a fervor, there are plenty of Facebook users who decided to do the ol', "like or comment on this and I'll split my winnings with you" routine. It's almost comical. But, as reported by CNet's Chris Matyszczyk, it can also feel a little bit tragic, too.

"My Family and I could use a million with getting evicted soon and water and power being turned off that money would HELP A LOt!!!," posted one Facebook user in response to Daniels' fake $1 million "sweepstakes."

"I'm the random person to pick :-) My mom is filming a movie and needs $500,000. And me and my son want to build a school for underprivileged kids. And lastly, i want to invest the rest in my company. Pick me!!," wrote another.

And, since this is the Internet, one has to even wonder whether these comments are themselves rooted in truth – unlike Daniels' initial post – or if they're just attempts to tug at the heartstrings for some free cash.

Which, itself, raises another question: Has anyone actually ever gotten a slice of another Facebook user's lottery winnings just for the simple act of "liking" or commenting on a post? And why do your average Facebook users think there's even a remote possibility that this would happen? That a brand-new, multi-millionaire is going to specifically track down the thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people who now get a slice of his or her payout?

Maybe it's the notion that, even if there's an infinitesimal possibility that it were true, losing out on free riches for the one-second act of "liking" something is a deal that's impossible to pass up.

For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).

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