Fake: People in Italy are not throwing their money on the streets due to COVID-19

New Delhi, Apr 01: A photograph is being shared on WhatsApp that shows money being thrown on the streets.

The message says, "people in Italy have thrown all of their money on the roads outside saying that this money is useless to save them from death. If you are well off spend this for the service and help of the needy.lesson for humanity."

A reverse image search leads us to a post of March 2019. This is an image taken in Venezuela, where currency is seen lying on the streets. The currency is lying on the streets after the old currency, the Bolívar Fuerte was replaced by a new form of currency, the Bolivar Soberano in August 2018. The currency was thrown as the old one was of no use to the people of Venezuela.

A post in the snopes.com published in 2019 read, " in late March 2019, a photograph supposedly showing piles of "worthless" currency thrown into gutters in Venezuela circulated on social media, attached to comments blaming socialism for the phenomenon behind the striking visual. One popular posting on Facebook was captioned, "this is a street in Venezuela. That's money in the gutter. It's worthless. Welcome to socialism."