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Woman accused of trying to sell fake Facebook stock

A woman allegedly claims that her daughter knows Mark Zuckerberg and happens to have been given $1 million of Facebook stock. She then allegedly tries to sell that stock.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

I was in a very nice New York last week when a man sat down at the table next to me and immediately told the waiter he was a friend of the owner.

The waiter, clearly used to such a claim, asked very politely how they knew each other and where they had met. He then took his pen out and began to take notes.

This is not, perhaps, the same low level of trust that is normal in Wisconsin.

For some people in that fair state allegedly took the word of Marianne Oleson, a lady who allegedly claimed her daughter knew Mark Zuckerberg. They then, according to allegations recorded by Reuters, proceeded to buy Facebook stock from her.

Oh, perhaps I failed to mention that this lady allegedly told them that her daughter, thanks to her inside acquaintance, had been given $1 million worth of brand new Facebook stock.

Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

The timing of such an offer would have been, of course, perfect. This week Facebook announced its IPO which will surely make so many people very, very wealthy. Or not.

The allegations against this lady do have a painful tinge about them. She stands accused of paying a contractor who did work on her house with $13,980 worth of fake Facebook stock.

Worse, the contractor was allegedly so excited by this potential windfall that he allegedly bought another $10,000 worth of this paper.

It seems that, in the midst of his excitement, he somehow managed to remain sufficiently compos mentis to notice that Oleson might not have told the truth about, well, her name.

In all, she has been charged with 31 counts of theft, forgery, and making misleading statements.

One thing we have all learned over these last long years is that, where Facebook is concerned, misleading statements are unquestionably not acceptable.