A bizarre chain message circulating on Facebook claims to be in support of breast cancer awareness.

But why do people believe it?

The text is as follows:

“You should not have liked or commented! Now you have to pick one of the 14 below and post to your status this is the 2014 breast cancer awareness game don’t be a spoil sport choose your poison and change your status 1) damn diarrhea 2) just used my boobs to get out of a speeding ticket 3) anyone have a tampon I’m out 4) how do u get rid of foot fungus 5) why is nobody around when I’m horny 6) no toilet paper goodbye socks! 7) someone offered me a job as a prostitute but I’m hesitant 8) I think I’m in love with someone what should I do ? 9) I’ve decided 2 stop wearing underwear 10) I still love my ex 11) I really don’t know how 2 tell anyone and I’m sick of hiding it I’m gay 12) guess it was 2 good 2 b true I’m pregnant 13) just won £7000 on a scratchy 14) I’ve just found out I’ve been cheated on for the past 5 months. Post with no explanations. Sorry I fell for it too! Sorry and haha! Looking forward to your post! X”

For those of us who are somewhat savvy in how these things work, this is clearly a hoax.

Firstly, there is no link to a donation button, website, or indeed anything to support the claim that a “breast cancer awareness game” even exists.

Secondly, if you think about it for even a few seconds, there is no way that changing a status to absolute nonsense is going to help cancer awareness, especially if you aren’t allowed to post explanations.

Thirdly, always check Snopes; this message sounds very similar to the bra colour post that went round a year or so ago.

Thankfully, this kind of thing is often harmless; at worst, you’ll have to do some explaining to your nearest and dearest.

But you have to wonder what on earth the motive could be for passing this kind of thing around; there seems to be no concrete benefit to the sender, not even a badly-disguised link to a virus.

The only thing I can think of is that the original sender has a puerile sense of humour and would like to see their Facebook friends post embarrassing statuses for no reason.

This is of course not to say that you should ignore everything on social media that claims to raise awareness for breast cancer; the recent fundraising campaign #nomakeupselfie has so far raised £2 million, as well as igniting the debate of why women feel that not wearing make-up is something daring and brave.

That is the kind of campaign to trust. It has sources, serious stories, and a proper organisation backing it up. Don’t succumb to an online practical joke.