A sick baby hoax is a confidence trick where a person claims, often on a website, that they have an ill child (or sometimes a pet) and are struggling to pay for their medical expenses. Some versions of the hoax ask people to make a monetary donation directly, while others simply encourage people to share the story.
Professional beggars have been exploiting sick children since ancient times. The success of such scams relies on a particular compassion in people towards children. When a child is sick, this particularly touches people's hearts.[1] An early example of this kind of hoax online is the "sick child chain letter",[1] an email making the claim that "with every name that this [letter] is sent to, the American Cancer Society will donate 3 cents per name to her treatment".
Social media, such as Facebook, facilitate the following form of this scam. A photo of a sick child is posted online, commonly without knowledge of the relatives, accompanied by a heart-touching story and sometimes a request for donations, which are simply collected by the scammer.[2] Often these photos become viral, so it becomes close to impossible to take them down. Since Facebook has been slow to address the problem efficiently (relying on user takedown requests and reports only), several scam- and hoax-combatting websites have worked together to raise the awareness of social media providers regarding this issue.[3][4] And it's very common, mostly on Facebook, for spam accounts to use artificial intelligence to make photorealistic images of deformed infants suffering with polymelia-like conditions or various physical diseases and conditions. Sometimes it shows ills that do not exist at all, and most of the time they use phrases claiming that the sick infant or baby in the photo is "having a birthday and that everyone forgot of his birthday" and using hashtags of famous persons to get more attention.
There are also cases where parents exploit their own child with a legitimate sickness. However, raised funds do not go towards medical treatment, but rather to cover their own needs. Patrons donate money to parents' bank accounts, providing a convenient source of money. There have been several cases wherein parents posted several videos of a sick child and their wire-transfer information in a public channel.
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References
- ^ a b Patricia M. Wallace, The Internet in the workplace: how new technology is transforming work, 2004, ISBN 0521809312, p. 103
- ^ Facebook hoax: this child's got a cancer
- ^ Protalinski, Emil (5 February 2012). "Anti-scam websites beg facebook to remove Sick baby hoaxes". ZDNET. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
- ^ Protalinski, Emil (6 February 2012). "Facebook removes sick baby hoaxes, urges users to report more". ZDNET. Retrieved 17 February 2023.
This page was last edited on 27 May 2024, at 20:38