And this is how viral scams are spread. If people simply stopped sharing content from like and share-whores, the problem would work itself out.

Sadly, this is probably not going to happen any time soon. That’s why we have to bring to your attention the latest hoax spreading across Facebook.

This one purports that Facebook is donating $1 to sick, starving children if you share a photo of them. This is simply not true.

“I’m not asking you to like this, but please do share because Facebook donates $1 for these sick children for every single share,” says the image (via Hoax Slayer).

Sharing hoaxes are some of the oldest types of hoaxes on Facebook. One recent hoax status suggested that a teenage boy needed life-saving surgery after being shot by his stepfather. Of course, the story was complete BS and all that sharing it accomplished was polluting people’s news feed. But it was shared – a lot.

Of course, sharing a status isn’t as tempting as sharing a photo. Last month, a scam spread around Facebook that featured a doctored photo of Bill Gates holding a sign that said he would give $5,000 to everyone who shared the photo. The photo was shared hundreds of thousands of times before Facebook yanked it.

Stop, think, and remember that Facebook doesn’t give out money based on shares. Nobody does. Just don’t click that share button.

Sophos Naked Security blog tips us to a new type of a very classic style of Facebook scam – the celebrity sex tape. This time it involves Rihanna.

What’s a little different about this one is that it hides inside an event: [VIDEO] RIHANNA SEX TAPE. Once you access the actual event page, you’ll be met with the text “I lost all respect for her after watching this” and a y.ahoo.it link. Don’t click it.

Rihanna isn’t the only celebrity with a recent sex tape scam on Facebook. Earlier this month, a viral scam made the rounds suggesting that Taylor Swift’s iPhone had been hacked and a sex tape had been leaked. Clicking on the provided link directed curious Facebookers to an online survey scam that phished for users’ personal info.

As always, be vigilant. And don’t let your curiosity cloud your better judgment.

Hoax-Slayer first spotted the hoax. Here’s the message that some users are seeing:

It’s official. Communication media. FACEBOOK has just published its price. fee of $? ($ 9.99), to become a member of “gold” and keep your privacy as it is. If you paste this on your wall will be completely free. Otherwise, tomorrow all your documents can become public. Even those messages that you have deleted or photos that you have not authorized …… not cost you anything, copy and paste

Of course, there’s the part at the end about simply sharing the status in order to make all the problems go away. That’s the number one mechanism that scammers use to spread viral hoaxes on any social network – because how hard is it to just copy and paste it, you know, just in case?

In reality, this hoax isn’t exactly new. It’s a mashup of a couple different hoaxes that have been floating around for years. First, there’s the Facebook “Gold” scam. Hoaxes suggesting that Facebook will soon make people pay to use the service have been going around for years, and the particular one involving a $9.99 Gold membership was spotted as early as 2010.

This has the added bonus of a privacy scare, suggesting that users must pay or share a status in order to avoid public humiliation. Privacy on Facebook is a scary subject for many users, so this simply plays into some people’s base fears.

Another Facebook hoax currently making the rounds implies that users could be lock up in “Facebook Jail” if they send too many friend requests that get rejected. There is a tiny bit of truth to this hoax, in that Facebook will temporarily suspend your friend-requesting abilities if you send out too many unfulfilled requests. But the hoax suggests that this could lead to a sudden and irreversible termination of your whole account, which is simply untrue.

As always, if it sounds ridiculous, it is ridiculous. Facebook is never going to make you pay to use the service and they are never going to make all of your private information public – at least not on their terms.

“Hey Facebook, As some of you may know, I’m Bill Gates. If you click that share link, I will give you $5,000. I always deliver, I mean, I brought your Windows XP, right?” says a sign in the hands of the Microsoft founder.

The photo already has over 200,000 shares.

In reality, Bill Gates isn’t going to give you $5,000 for clicking share. Nobody is, for that matter. The photo was taken from Gates’ first-ever reddit AMA, which he hosted on Monday. Here’s the original image:

Clearly, the text inside the piece of paper has simply been shopped. It also looks like they’ve replaced the little reddit alien in the background with a sex toy or something. Cool.

There’s no doubt that some people shared this simply because they thought it was funny – they know it’s fake. But there are plenty of people (evidenced by the comments) that believe sharing this photo will net them five grand from one of the richest men in the world.

In either case, just don’t share it. You may know it’s a joke but thousands of others don’t. And it’s all over my news feed. And it’s annoying. So stop. Thanks.

But a new hoax making the rounds may just be the dumbest thing to hit the Facebook community in quite some time – maybe ever.

The viral status suggests that at the end of February, Facebook will be shutting down for three whole days for some sort of site maintenance.

According to Sophos Naked Security blog, the hoax first appeared in French and has morphed into English.

Here’s what the message looks like (or at least some form of this):

WARNING!! Facebook will be closed for maintenance from February 29th to 31st!! Facebook wants YOU to Share this message with at least 15 of your friends for the best chance of alerting everyone. Many people will try to log in from February 29 to 31, just to find the site closed down for those days with no warning

Facebook has never and will never go down for three days of site maintenance. Plus, Facebook definitely won’t go down from February 29th to February 31st because those dates don’t exist.

In 2013, February ends on the 28th. In a few years there will be a February 29th, but there will never, ever be a February 30th or 31st (at least in our modern calendar).

Use your noggins and stop spreading this stuff. Pretty please?

But that simple fact still floats over the heads of many users, who continue to share hoax statuses and clog up everyone’s news feeds with rubbish.

Today’s hoax making the rounds involves a story about a young boy who needs money for a life saving surgery. According to the hoax status, he was shot by his stepfather, who was attempting to rape the boy’s 6-year-old sister. It’s reminiscent of another hoax spread around back in 2011.

Here’s the full text of the hoax:

A 14 YEAR OLD BOY WAS SHOT 6 TIMES BY HIS STEPFATHER. THIS BOY WAS PROTECTING HIS LITTLE 6 YEAR OLD SISTER WHO WAS ABOUT TO BE RAPED BY THIS POOR… EXCUSE OF A MAN. THE LITTLE GIRL DID GET HURT, THANKS TO HER BRAVE OLDER BROTHER. THEIR MOM WAS AT WORK WHEN THIS HAPPENED. NOW THIS BRAVE YOUNG LITTLE BOY IS FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE,BUT DOCTORS SAY HE WILL NOT SURVIVE UNLESS HE GETS AN OPERATION WHICH IS COSTLY AND HIS MOM CANNOT PAY. FACEBOOK COMPANIES HAVE AGREED TO DONATE 45 CENTS FOR EVERY TIME SOMEONE SHARE THIS MESSAGE SO, PLEASE CLICK SHARE SO THAT TOGETHER WE CAN HELP SAVE THIS BOUS LIFE……NSFTBC! If you had a heart you’d do it, It will only take a minute of your time!

Sad story, right? Fortunately, it’s untrue and sharing it will do nothing except make you appear daft to your friends.

There are numerous ways in which users can spot a hoax like this and nip it before it has a chance to take off. First, like I said before, Facebook isn’t in the habit or donating money to causes on a per-share basis. Second, the status contains no link to a real news story, a donation page, or an official Facebook post. And lastly, just look at it.

[via Sophos]

In a blog post written for The Huffington Post, Daniels explains why he decided to start the now-legendary hoax:

“I myself have never shared or liked anything for that reason and I’ve never asked others to share or like something. Then Nov. 29, 2012, came around and I came home from work and saw people sharing a photo of a man holding a digitally manipulated photo of winning Powerball numbers to the biggest Powerball drawing that was all over the news. In the description he said that a book inspired him to pick the winning numbers and he attached a link to where you could purchase the book.

It was obvious to me that this person was gaining something monetary for sharing that link so people could purchase this book. I was amazed at my friends who were sharing it so I decided to do it myself and see who’d fall for it. I quickly snapped a photo and spent 15 minutes moving the numbers to look like winning numbers. I knew they were out of order and that the remaining winner had a 10-pick ticket, but I also knew that would add to my curiosity of who reads the news and does their research before clicking a button.”

He said that the photo received over 400,000 shares in 18 hours, and over two million within three days. He definitely wasn’t the only one perpetrating a powerball hoax, but he was definitely the most successful.

He also says that the fact that he didn’t try to promote anything with his hoax, and that led to its credibility.

The sad part about this “social experiment” is that he apparently received thousands of messages from people, many of which had sad stories to tell about how they needed the money.

“There are not too many positives that can come from a hoax or scam but hopefully with my story I can try and turn a negative into a positive. A viral hoax can give a person like myself 15 minutes of fame and rather than attempt to exploit or profit from the situation, I can instead try to help a stranger,” he says.

With that in mind, he’s using his 15 minutes to raise money for one of the people that sent him a private message, a mother with a 6-figure medical debt.

All forgiven? A harmless social experiment? Douchebag move? What do you think?