An image being heavily circulated online shows a man showing what is claimed to be a winning Powerball ticket. He claims that he’ll give $1 million dollars to a random user who shares the post. Is this real or fake?
It’s a hoax.
The Facebook account from which the photo originated has the name of Nolan Daniels. The post reads, “Looks like I won’t be going to work EVER!!!! Share this photo and I will give a random person 1 million dollars!”
No one by this name was announced as a winner when the photo was posted.
Fake Photo
As of this writing, the post has been shared over 800,000 times. Despite his defense of the legitimacy of the photo, the most damning evidence against him is in the photo itself. Powerball tickets are printed in numerical order, which means the ticket should have displayed 5 16 22 23 29, with the powerball of 6. The ticket in the photo shows them out of order: 22, 29, 23, 16, and 5.
Sokhavy Hilton Variant
Below is another similar photo which appeared in December 2012 and continues to be shared in 2013 – despite the fact that the $580 million powerball jackpot was back in November 2012. This one reads,
Yes, I am one of the winner of 580$ Million Powerball 🙂 I will pick 10 random people to get 1 Million $ each if you share this! I care for others too! 🙂
Sokhavy Hilton
See more about Sokhavy Hilton’s additional lottery claims here.
Moses Adam Keener Variant
In December 2012 a picture was posted by Facebook user Moses Adam Keener. The caption read:
I just won $75,000,000 playing powerball! Share this picture with your friends. I will be donating $1 million each to 3 different people that share this picture. The winners will be chosen at random to show I have some heart. Hurry before someone else wins!
It was apparent early on that this was a joke. When someone asked why he created such a post, he responded, “Bored. And Trolling.” He later added, “Its sad that people want to be your friends when you suddenly have money.” A week after posting the image, he jokingly claimed to win again. Despite the post occurring months ago and admissions by the poster that it was fake, sharing of the image has seen an increase in recent weeks.
Every Powerball jackpot in December 2012 was either $40 million or $50 million (Source: usamega.com).
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