A message is being shared widely on social media with a claim that there are four kidneys available for donation. The message mentions three phone numbers for contacting the donors’ relatives. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Four kidneys available for donation. Contact the given numbers.
Fact: The same message is being shared on social media at least from October 2017. Two of the given phone numbers are not working and the person on the other number had already clarified that the message is fake. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched for further details regarding the message, it was found that the same message is being shared on social media at least from October 2017. But, back then, it was shared (archived) only with one phone number.
When ‘Check4Spam’ contacted the given number (983XXXXXXX) back in 2018, the person has clarified that the message is ‘totally wrong’ and ‘fake’. The same message has also been debunked by ‘SM Hoax Slayer’ in 2018. The ‘SM Hoax Slayer’ reported that the given phone number belongs to Dr. Sandeep Garg, a Nephrologist belonging to Meerut. FACTLY has also tried to contact him and this article will be updated upon his response.
The other two phone numbers given in the message are not working. Also, when a similar message (archived) with another phone number (which is also not working now) went viral on social media in August 2017, a complaint was filed with cybercrime police in Karnataka. The same message (archived) is still being shared on social media in 2020.
To sum it up, the message – ‘Four kidneys available for donation. Contact these numbers’ is fake.
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