Recently, a woman in Indiana found out the hard way that sharing your good fortune on social media can come with a steep price.
Drena Harris, a lucky scratch card winner, learned this lesson the difficult way when her celebratory Facebook post ended up costing her the $500 prize.
The woman made the mistake of posting her winning ticket on social media.
After the winning. Harris decided to share a photo of her ticket on Facebook, eager to tell the world about her success.
However, she didn't know that her innocent act of excitement would soon turn into a nightmare.
Shortly after Harris posted the image, a crafty scammer spotted the ticket details and used the information to deceive a store clerk, successfully claiming the prize money.
By the time Harris realized what had happened, it was too late, and the lottery commission refused to pay her the $500 she had rightfully won.
The disappointed winner attempted to appeal the decision, but the situation only worsened.
Harris lost her prize despite asking for help from lottery authorities.
The store where she had purchased the winning ticket had since gone out of business, leaving no evidence for the lottery officials to review. With no way to verify her claim, Harris was left empty-handed.
Chuck Taylor, the director of legal affairs and compliance for the Hoosier Lottery, explained that if Harris had acted quickly, the lottery could have potentially intervened and recovered the stolen funds.
However, the delayed response due to her social media post made it impossible to rectify the situation.
This is not the first time an individual experienced a loss due to a social media mistake.
A family from Kentucky had planned a $15,000 cruise vacation. However, their trip was canceled just 2 days before they were supposed to leave.
The problem stemmed from a mistake on social media.
Tiffany Blanks, the mother, had shared a photo on Facebook showing their cruise booking information. Unfortunately, someone then used this information to cancel their entire reservation.
Despite explaining that it was an accident, the cruise company refused to refund their money since it was within 15 days of the cruise.
The family lost the $15,000 they had already paid for the trip, including the flights and expensive cabin reservation.
In the end, the family was unable to go on their dream cruise vacation due to this social media mistake. They felt very disappointed and said they would never use that cruise line again.
