A fake story stating that Google Earth rescued a woman who was trapped on a deserted island for seven years has gone viral.
The news was reported by News-Hound.org which claims that Gemma Sheridan along with two friends left her hometown Liverpool, England, in 2007 to sail to island of Hawaii.
The first stage of the journey went without any problem, but when they passed through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific, things turned out to be very difficult.
Sheridan faced huge storm that washed her friends overboard and damaged her boat. With that damaged boat, she managed to drift for more than two weeks until she was hit by another storm, the website reported.
The second storm knocked out Sheridan following which she felt unconscious. When she woke up, she found herself on a beach with her boat.
She was stuck on the island and after years Sheridan happened to wake up one day to the sound of a plane flying over her. The plane dropped a small package.
"Inside was a radio, fresh water, food and a small medical kit. I switched on the radio and heard the first human voice for years. I asked the voice on the other end "How did you find me" to which they replied "Some kid from Minnesota found your SOS sign on Google Earth". I didnt even know what Google Earth was, but I'm eternally in their debt now," the website reported.
However, on Wednesday a website Waffles at Noon reported that the story that is going viral is apparently a fake story.
According to Waffles at Noon, the supposedly "SOS" sign which the woman created is actually a satellite image of destruction in Kyrgyzstan. The original image was posted on Amnesty International's blog in 2010.
Apart from this, there are other points that prove that the story is actually a hoax.
According to Waffles at Noon, the website which reported the story was registered in January 2014, but the articles published has date before its registration. Even some of the texts in that article are taken from one of the Daily Mail's article.