No, you aren’t getting free money by sharing a poorly written Facebook status

Folks tend to suspend common sense whenever the specter of money for nothing rears its ugly, gaseous head.

This probably explains why good, thoughtful people you respect are actually sharing an absurd, poorly written Facebook status update in the hopes of being entered in a non-existent drawing for non-existent money.

To be fair, the money certainlydoesexist. Facebook is valued at nearly$245 billion, according to CNN Money. There’s just no way in H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks that the company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is giving it toyou.

RELATED: Facebook’s Zuckerberg to give 99 percent of shares to charity

The stultifying hoax sometimes begins with a grievous pander, “THANK YOU Mark Zuckerbergfor your forward-thinking generosity,” and sometimes ends with an equally awful, “This will really happen.” People are actually sharing this, too – as is their wont.Sometimes, they even swear to the chainletter’s veracity, claiming of all bizarre, nonsensical things that it was stated on “Good Morning America.”

Like all Internet hoaxes, this one has roots in the truth, though.

Zuckerberg is, in fact, giving away his personal fortune to charity, explained Caroline Moss for Tech Insider. But, Moss added, “Sorry, Mark Zuckerberg isn’t giving his money to you anytime soon, regardless of what you see posted on your friends’ Facebook feeds.”

No matter how many times dubious claims like these aredebunked, they still spread like wildfire. Internet hoax information site Snopes even has an entire page devoted to the idea. In other words, it’s incredibly easy to verify or, rather, debunk.Yet, people you love are probably sharing it –even hopefully.

And, that is, arguably, a bleak notion.