Claim: Every time a particular message is posted, Facebook will donate 45 cents towards an operation for a boy shot by his stepfather.
Example:[Collected via e-mail, May 2012]
14 YEAR OLD BOY WAS SHOT 6 TIMES BY HIS STEPFATHER, THIS BOY WAS PROTECTING HIS LITTLE 2 YEAR OLD SISTER WHO WAS ABOUT TO BE RAPED BY THIS POOR EXCUSE OF A MAN. THE LITTLE GIRL DID NOT GET HURT THANKS TO HER BRAVE OLDER BROTHER. THEIR MOM WAS AT WORK WHEN ALL THIS HAPPENED. NOW THIS BRAVE YOUNG MAN IS FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE, BUT DOCTRS SAY HE WILL NOT SURVIVE UNLESS HE GETS AN OPERATION WHICH IS VERY COSTFUL AND WHICH HIS MOM CANNOT PAY. ALL FACEBOOK COMPANIES HAVE AGREED TO DONATE 45 CENTS FOR EVERY TIME SOMEONE POSTS THIS TO THEIR WALL, SO PLEASE PASTE AND PASS THIS ON SO THAT TOGETHER WE CAN HELP SAVE THIS BOYS LIFE
Origins: In May 2012 we began receiving queries
about a message circulated via Facebook which claimed a 14-year-old boy was shot six times by his stepfather while the boy was attempting to prevent his 2-year-old sister from being raped by the man. According to the entreaties, the boy will not survive unless he undergoes an operation which his family cannot afford, but "all Facebook companies have agreed to donate 45 cents" towards the cost of that operation every time the narrative is posted on users' Facebook walls.
This item was just a recirculation of a two-year-old hoax: there is no child in desperate need of an operation that "Facebook companies" are assisting by paying money based on the number of times a message is reposted.
While the mode of circulating the appeal may vary (cell phone text message, Facebook post, or e-mail forward), the message is but one of many variants of the same basic hoax that falsely claims the American Cancer Society, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, or some other
large entity will donate a predetermined amount of money every time a particular message is forwarded. Such leg-pulls have been circulating via e-mail since 1997.
Typically, a large charity is named as the benefactor standing ready to direct monies towards the costs of medical care for the languishing child, but various
corporations have also been fingered for this role in other iterations of the hoax, such as AOL and ZDNet in the Rachel Arlington leg pull (brain cancer sufferer in need of an operation) and McDonald's and Pizza Hut in the Justin Mallory prank (epileptic in need of long-term care).
Everyone wants to help sick children get better, and the thought of a little boy or girl suffering from some dread disease or infirmity because people couldn't be bothered to forward a message tugs straight at the heartstrings. Problem is, hoaxsters know that, and they play upon these very human drives for their personal amusement. Once again, that is the case here: Well-intentioned forwarding does nothing towards helping a sick child; it does, however, make the day of some prankster.
