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29 March 2024

Moving story, heartbreaking image... cruel hoax

On the Facebook version, the message alongside the image claims the Polish girl will receive 3 cents towards her medical care for every ‘share and like’. In the original version that did the rounds in 2005, the message was identical, except that the 3 cents were to be paid to the poor parents for ‘every forward by email’. (FACEBOOK)

Published
By Staff

While social networking sites abound with hoax messages and inane requests for ‘shares’ and ‘likes,’ there are a few genuine cases as well, but figuring out whether they’re genuine or hoax is getting increasingly difficult for even the more active online denizen.

Here’s a case with a heartrending image of a 14-month old child with a half-burnt face. While it seems, on the face of it, to be a genuine case, where the owner of the webpage claims that the suffering child will receive 3 cents in monetary aid with every ‘like’ and ‘share’ on Facebook, delve a little deeper, and the ugly truth becomes obvious.

A simple ‘Google’ search shows that the message has been resurrected from old emails and recycled on Facebook with the same heartrending image of a 14-month old child with a badly burnt face and with an ear missing.

What’s more, alarm bells go off the moment one realizes that the message doesn’t mention the corporate or institution that has pledged to offer this aid, nor does it provide any sort of contact details for people who might want to donate more than ‘3 cents’.

Nevertheless, almost 100,000 people have already shared the above picture with he attached message since the article was published on the morning of December 22.

However, according to Snopes.com, this image has been doing the rounds in the online world since 2005, but with a different name. Hoax messages obviously adapt well to changing technologies.
 
According to the 2011 version of the message that accompanies the image, the 14-month-old Alexandra “came out of a fire alive but now has to fight for her life and a normal future”.

Again, it doesn’t share any details of where and when the fire occurred, and if there were other victims. “She has burnt skin all over her body, damage facial bones (as a result of very high temperature). She does not have half of her face. She is in hospital in Kirakow - Polans and one of the best specialist[s] is looking after her. However, she still has to go through many surgeries and then long rehab. Unfortunately her parents do not have any more money.”

On the Facebook version, the message alongside the image claims the Polish girl will receive 3 cents towards her medical care for every ‘share and like’. In the original version that did the rounds in 2005, the message was identical, except that the 3 cents were to be paid to the poor parents for ‘every forward by email’.

The message continues: “For each share and like her parents will get 3 cents. Please help them and share or like this post. Help Alexandra have a bright future.”
Snopes.com says that information about Olenka Kuczma, the actual name of the girl, is difficult to get as the incident occurred in a Polish town and all media coverage was in Polish.

Apparently, the baby was badly injured when her house caught fire and she suffered extensive injuries in the incident in 2005. Her parents lost everything they owned in the fire and could not afford to undertake her expensive medical treatment.

However, both the versions (2005 and 2011) are a complete hoax since they provide no information on who will actually make the payment, if at all. It also does not provide any means for caring netizens to provide aid to the parents.

All in all, a moving story and a heartrending image, but a very cruel hoax indeed.

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