Bill Gates $5,000 Facebook Share Hoax: Gates Not Giving Money Out

Bill Gates $5,000 Facebook Share Hoax: Gates Not Giving Money Out
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates speaks at the product launch of the new Windows XP operating system October 25, 2001 in New York City. The U.S. Justice Department announced November 2, 2001 that it has reached a settlement with Microsoft. The settlement will be filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. and must be approved by the presiding judge over the case. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Jack Phillips
5/13/2014
Updated:
7/18/2015

A fake Facebook post going around with a picture of Bill Gates claims he’ll give $5,000 to people who share the post.

“As you some of you may know, I’m Bill Gates. If you click the ‘share’ link, I will give you $5000. It’s about time I give back to the people!” the message in the picture reads.

The photo of Gates, who is one of the richest people in the world, has been digitally manipulated to show him holding the message.

Tens of thousands of people have shared the post in an attempt to get the cash, but it’s not real.

According to Snopes.com, the hoax has been around for a few years.

“Nothing about this form of hoax is real: Bill Gates isn’t giving $5,000 to Facebook users who click a share link, the plan wasn’t written up in USA Today (other than in articles about Internet hoaxes), Microsoft isn’t running a tracked “e-mail beta test” with Bill Gates paying people for participating, and Intel and AOL aren’t merging. Microsoft put up a message on their web site warning the public about this hoax back in 1999,” the website said last year.

Part of Microsoft’s email from 15 years ago reads, “As you may have suspected, this is a hoax and did not originate from Microsoft.”

The photograph is from a Reddit AMA that Gates did in 2013.

“The bottom line is that no matter which incarnation of this silliness one receives, the principle is the same: there’s still no free lunch, and big companies aren’t going to hand out fabulous vacations, thousands of dollars, free trendy clothes, new computers, cases of candies, wads of cash, or new cars just because someone with a functioning Internet connection does them the favor of forwarding an e-mail,” Snopes concludes.

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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