Facebook hoax: Users fall for Mark Zuckerberg fortune giveaway once again

Facebook users have been falling hook, line and sinker once again for a hoax post claiming Mark Zuckerberg is going to give away his fortune to "lucky" people who recirculate a message to other users. The post claims that the Facebook founder is planning to flutter away 10% of his $45bn (£30bn) to 1,000 randomly selected users, meaning those chosen could pocket £3m each.

The message says Zuckerberg will award "people like YOU and ME" if they copy the message and tag five to 10 of their friends. It says he would dish out his cash at midnight as a "way of saying thank you for making Facebook such a powerful vehicle for connection and philanthropy", however no date was specified.

Sadly, none of this is going to happen. Despite hopeful users claiming it was "legit" and announced on US news show Good Morning America, it was all part of an email chain hoax.

However, that did not stop hundreds of thousands of prospecting people widely share the post over the Christmas period. You may have seen it yourself and you may very well be turning red-faced if you were one of those who fell for it. What is even more embarrassing is the fact this was a hoax post that reared its head four weeks earlier and was even dismissed by Facebook weeks ago in a message to members.

Yet, it is easy to see why so many excitedly clicked the share button. Zuckerberg did recently announce after the birth of his daughter Max that he will be giving away 99% of his Facebook stock but this will be going to charity causes to help "advance human potential".

While many will be disappointed and probably pretty embarrassed at this revelation, at least we can all have a bit of a laugh from the whole thing as it did not take long for users to start sharing hilarious memes mocking the hoax.