Saturday 1 December 2012

Facebook Powerball frenzy: Purported winner offers to 'share' $1 million

The second winner of the $588 million PowerBall lottery is not yet known publicly. But one man says he's the winner and will give someone who shares his Facebook photo $1 million. Is it a hoax?

By Patrik Jonsson,?Staff writer / November 30, 2012

Karen Bach, director of budget, products and communications of the Arizona Lottery, announces during a news conference Thursday that one of the winning tickets in the $579.9 million Powerball jackpot was purchased in Fountain Hills, Ariz.

Ross D. Franklin/AP

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His name is Nolan Daniels, and he?s just about to give some random dude or dudette $1 million. Or so he claims.

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Purporting to be the second Powerball winner in Wednesday?s $588 million payout, Mr. Daniels posted a Facebook photo late Thursday of himself holding a ticket showing the winning numbers. The photo is the only one visible on Daniels's account, which dates to 2008.

?Looks like I?m not going to work ? EVER!!!? the smiling purported winner exclaimed. The numbers on his ticket ? 5-23-16-22-29-Powerball 6 ? correspond to the winning combination, but the ticket has not been publicly verified.

To make the Facebook announcement that much more bizarre, Daniels vowed to give $1 million of his winnings to a ?random? person who ?shares? his photo.

That set off a frenzy Friday as thousands of Facebook users got in on the action, with the photo being shared over 1,000 times a minute, with over 100,000 shares as of 3:30 p.m.

On his Facebook page, Daniels chastised skeptics and suggested, ?Anyone who doubts the legitimacy of this photo will not be included in the 1 million dollar drawing.?

There were two winners in the drawing. The only winners confirmed so far are Cindy and Mark Hill of Dearborn, Mo., who decided to take a lump sum payment. Lottery authorities have not revealed the name of the other winner, who bought a ticket in Arizona. Earlier on Friday, some guessed that a video of a man celebrating in Maryland might show the winner.

The payout is the second largest in US history after three ticket buyers shared a $656 million jackpot in March. As the amount grew this week, tickets were selling at a rate of 130,000 a minute.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/ucvywQCuTLc/Facebook-Powerball-frenzy-Purported-winner-offers-to-share-1-million

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