JEDDAH: Saudis dug deep into their pockets and bank accounts to help a so-called Sara Ibrahim, supposedly a young girl fighting cancer.

Her story started on Twitter when she created an account in her name.

She posted that she was a little child afflicted with leukemia and was looking to finance the cost of her treatment. This set the ball rolling for many Saudis, from officials to prominent personalities.

Education Minister Azzam Al-Dakhil followed her and others, like actor Fayez Al-Malki, took up her cause together with poets Yasser Al-Tuwaijri and Bandar Al-Turki. In addition, some channels talked to her wanting her to retell her story.

However, days after her story was aired, it turned out that she actually was an American girl, Esme, suffering from osteosarcoma, and that her picture and story had been hijacked by someone in Saudi Arabia. This set out the tweeters again, creating a different hashtag in Arabic #LieofSaraIbrahim. They expressed dismay at what they called the “piracy of emotions.”

This in turn created new tweets mocking those who supported the girl with their pictures after they found out they had been duped. In the end, her Twitter account was deleted.

Allowing emotions to take over the mind and not referring to proper sources is the major reason behind believing in fake stories, according to psychologist Dr. Mohammad Shawish.

Reflex responses arise from sympathies and lack of logical thinking.