Donations for Baby Born With Heart Outside Body-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
A viral social media post claims that Facebook will donate $1 to a baby girl born with her heart outside her body every time the post is shared.
The Truth:
A baby girl was born with her heart outside her body in 2012, but Facebook isn’t donating any money to her.
Audrina Cardenas was born with her heart outside her body, a condition known as ectopia cordis, at a Texas hospital in October of 2012. One in a million babies are born with the condition, and it’s fatal in 90% of those cases. Thanks to a six-hour long surgery, however, Audrina survived, ABC reports.
After news of a baby born with a heart outside its body broke in 2012, a scam on social media tried to capitalize on it. A post shows a picture of a baby and says, “Don’t forget to share. Fb has decided to donate 1$ per share for this baby born with heart outside body.”
There several things wrong with this post.
First, the photo doesn’t show a baby born with a heart outside their body. The baby’s name is Hayes Davis, and he was born with omphalocele. That’s a birth defect that causes the intestines and abdominal organs to stick out of the baby’s bellybutton.
Second, the post claiming Facebook would donate $1 for every share is a clickjacking scam. Facebook explains:
“Spammers sometimes take advantage of a vulnerability in the web browser to try to trick people into clicking on links they might not want to click on. This is called clickjacking, and it’s done by overlaying the link with something more enticing, like a phony offer.”
As a general rule, assume that any social media post that promises something in exchange for a like or a share is a clickjacking scam.