Messages circulating vigorously via Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets are claiming that much-loved actor Adam Sandler has died.
As well as the circulating messages, several R.I.P. Adam Sandler Facebook Pages and Groups have been established.
However, the claims in the messages are untrue. Adam Sandler is very much alive. There are no credible news or media reports about the actor’s supposed demise. Given that the media love nothing more than a good celebrity death story, you can rest assured that the death of any high profile person will be extensively reported by news outlets around the world.
In fact, this crop of messages is just the latest in an ongoing series of hoaxes that have falsely claimed that Sandler has died. Poor Adam has already “died” at least twice before this year, in June 2012 and September 2012. And he has “died” in previous years as well.
In one widely circulated version of the hoax, he was supposedly killed in a snowboarding accident in Switzerland. Other versions of the hoax do not specify a cause of death. All are totally false.
And Sandler is certainly not the only celebrity that has been targeted in Internet death hoaxes. Morgan Freeman, Johnny Depp, Lil Wayne, Bill Nye, Rihanna, Bon Jovi, several WWE wrestlers and even Cuban leader Fidel Castro have all featured in recent death hoaxes.
Before sharing or reposting any messages about the death of a famous – or infamous – person, it is always wise to check the veracity of the claims via a legitimate news source.
A simple search of a news service such as Google News should quickly reveal if a social media-driven claim about a celebrity death is true. Note also, that some of these celebrity death messages contain links to survey scam, phishing, or malware websites.
A screenshot of the false death messages:
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
