Fake Winning Powerball Ticket Goes Viral on Facebook Proving Once Again That Facebook Users Will Share Anything
On Thursday evening, a Facebook user named Nolan Daniels posted a poorly-photoshopped picture of his supposedly-winning Powerball ticket, along with the offer that he would give $1 million to a random person who shared it. So far it's been shared over 200,000 times, because Like-addled Facebook users will share anything no matter how obviously untrue it is.
When one of Daniel's friends asked if he was serious he replied "239 Million! I'm out celebrating now." He claims in the comments of the Facebook photo he was visiting a client in Fountain Hills, Arizona when he bought the winning ticket.
But you don't even have to examine the pixels to tell this is a fake. While the numbers on Daniels' ticket do match those that won half of the record $587.5 million jackpot, they're not in numerical order. A real ticket would be. From the official Powerball FAQ:
"The tickets print the white ball numbers (the first five numbers) in numerical order."
We've reached out to Daniels to see why he isn't volunteering for charity or learning a second language since he apparently has too much time on his hands.
Since the drawing, a couple in Missouri has been identified as the holders of one of two winning tickets. The other winner, who bought their ticket in Arizona, still hasn't come forward, but he was apparently captured on a gas station surveillance camera at the moment he found out he won. And he definitely doesn't look like Daniels.