photo is also circulated with different captions

This photo is circulating Facebook under the assertion that sharing it will result in donations.

The message is completely bogus and is just the latest in a string of heartless hoaxes than involve callous pranksters stealing photos from the Internet of sick or injured children and trying to bait well-meaning but naive Facebook users into circulating the photo under the false assertion that doing so will result in donations for the child.

In this case the child is named John, born in 2011 HLHS (Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome). John has already has an operation on his heart since the photo above was taken, and is currently expected to undergo a handful more.

However the photo is being circulated with a false caption. No donations are accumulated for sharing or liking his photo and his family have not given permission for his photo to be circulated in such a manner.

A special blog for John has been set up here.

For more information on these types of hoaxes, click here.

To see what you can do to help, click here.


The Internet, and social networking sites like Facebook, are perfect platforms for spreading untruths, misinformation, rumor and propaganda. Thousands of inaccurate, exaggerated, deceptive or just plain false messages are circulated every single day.

For the anti-scam community to successfully tackle this plethora of false rumours, it is important that anyone who uses the Internet be able to identify false rumours and fully understands the possible consequences of spreading false information.

We have a two part blog post that helps provide this information. Part 1 deals with how to spot and debunk Internet rumours and Part 2 deals with the reasons why you should never circulate false information.

Additionally if you have fallen for this rumour or have Facebook friends that have, you can join our growing Facebook page here.