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Child brides, virginity, babies and other hard to believe 'items' that people have placed on an online auction

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A bride holds a bouquet of flowers
A bride holds a bouquet of flowers

One of the most recent and unbelievable online auctions is the case of a 17 year old Sudanese girl who got auctioned off for marriage by her parents - on Facebook no less. According to Daily Mail, the Sudanese teen was auctioned on Facebook and sold to the highest bidder for marriage.

The auction, which was orchestrated by her parents, involved five bidders, each competing ferociously for the young virgin bride to be. Eventually she was sold off to a wealthy businessman for a whopping 325 cows, three luxury Toyota bakkies and $10 000 (R140 788,50).

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The couple were married on the third of November and she is now being called the most expensive woman in South Sudan. While the story is bizarre and heartbreaking, it also raised a number of concerns, not only around the cruelty of child brides and forced marriages but also about the usage of social media to enable such transactions.

Equality Now, an activist group for women and children called on Facebook to take more steps to ensure that such activities don't happen, they also raised concerns that this may spark other people attempting to do the same thing to make dowries from young women and girls.

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According to Daily Mail, Judy Gitau, a lawyer at Equality Now told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that, "Facebook has a responsibility on securing and protecting the rights of women and girls." She says they need to put sufficient resources into monitoring what is on their platform.

Earlier this year, HuffPost also reported the story of a 26-year-old Brazilian woman who sold her virginity for a cool €1.2-million (R17.5 million). 

"I [am selling] my virginity because I want to travel the world and visit America and various other places," she explained in a statement. "My future plans include starting my own business, and this is something that requires money."

READ MORE: Are women choosing 'virginity' restoration for the right reasons?

According to the publication, the auction was won by the highest bidder, an unnamed Hollywood actor. The young woman, who went on a date with all three of the bidders before making her decision, was delighted with her choice and "could not have dreamed to get such a high price" for her auction.

In another crazy case, a mother attempted to sell her five-month-old baby on Craigslist for $3000 (R42 155,85). According to ABC the mother and her boyfriend had posted the ad on Craigslist but the sale never happened as the two were later nabbed by police.

Unfortunately this is only one of the many cases of mothers attempting to sell their children online in exchange for cash.

While selling children off for money or marriage is neither funny nor legal, there are a few other online auctions that are downright crazy.

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Among these have been "the meaning of life", "the gift of invisibility" a dorito that was shaped like the Pope's hat and even someone's soul. Yes you read right, a young musician attempted to sell his soul to raise money for his band. 

Whacky much?

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