A Facebook user named Nolan Daniels claims to be one of the two winners of the $588 million Powerball jackpot.
Daniels posted a photo on Thursday night that shows him holding what appears to be a winning ticket. The ticket that he holds in the photo has the winning numbers, 5, 16, 22, 23, 29, PB 6.
Daniels posted the photo at around 10 p.m. on Thursday and said he would share part of his winnings with someone who shares the photo. "Looks like I won't be going to work EVER!!!! Share this photo and I will give a random person 1 million dollars!"
The photo has been shared over 208,000 times as of 4:00 p.m. EST. However some are claiming that the photo is a fake.
The numbers on Daniels' ticket read 22,29,23, 16, 5 and Powerball 6. This order of numbers would not be standard on a Powerball ticket. They would be in order of lowest to highest. Also, the 16 in the photo appears to be altered from '46.' The '5' may have been a '55.' As a commentor noted, single digits also have a 0 in front of them, so Daniels' 5 and Powerball 6 should read as '05' and '06.'
It seems like Daniels' ticket is nothing more than a work of Photoshop or some other alteration. While there is no harm in sharing the photo, it likely won't result in anyone getting a million dollars, not even Daniels.
This may not even be the first time that Daniels has attempted this prank.
Daniels tries to defend his photo, saying "Anyone who doubts the legitimacy of this photo will not be included in the 1 million dollar drawing."
One of the real Powerball winners has stepped forward. A Missouri couple, Mark and Cindy Hill of Dearbourn, MO claimed their prize. They received half of the jackpot, equal to $293,750,000. The other winner, located in Arizona, has not been identified.
Daniels claimed that he is from Phoenix, Arizona, making it seem like he could be the winner from Arizona.
