Crazy Facebook Hoax starts with unemployment, ends stranded in mexico
by Cody Permenter
The Daily Dot
August 21, 2013

Dave Cicirelli, an art director from New York City, posted on his Facebook profile in late 2009 that his life was at a standstill and something desperately needed to change. He announced his decision to quit his job and hitchhike across country, taking his laptop and cellphone to document his journey. Along the way, he fell in love with an Amish woman, joined a doomsday cult, got stranded in Mexico, and got inked up with a bowtie tattoo.

Sounds like a pretty crazy adventure, right?

As with most things that sound too good to be true are, Cicirelli”™s story was completely fake””an elaborate scheme played out on Facebook with the help of Photoshop. In his new book Fakebook, Cicirelli tells the story of his six-month hoax that fooled more people than he ever thought it could. (more…)

Submitted by Emerson Dameron. Editor’s note: This is reminiscent of Alan Abel’s 1990 Lottery Ticket Hoax.

Man Fools More Than 500,000 Facebook Users Pretending To Be Lottery Winner
by Justin Lafferty
allfacebook.com
November 30, 2012

As we learned earlier with the ubiquitous “In response to the new Facebook guidelines“ posts, Facebook users will share just about anything “” especially if they”™ve got a shot at $1 million. Recently, a Facebook user named Nolan Daniels posted a photo of himself with the $587.5 million-winning Powerball ticket, with the caption, “Looks like I won”™t be going to work EVER!!!! Share this photo and I will give a random person 1 million dollars!” More than 500,000 people have shared the photo. One problem, though: the ticket isn”™t real.

Gawker pointed out that the numbers on the ticket would be in order, citing the Powerball FAQ:

The tickets print the white ball numbers (the first five numbers) in numerical order.

It”™s plain to see that the numbers on Daniels”™ faked ticket appear to read: 4, 22, 29, 23, 46, 5.

Other than that, the real winners have already come forward.