According to a post circulating via social media, American singer/songwriter and pastor Don Moen has died.
The post links to an error riddled “news” report that claims that Don Moen died “after short battle with stomach pain”.
However, the claims in the report are not true. Don Moen is alive and well. The man himself has debunked the death claim via his official Facebook Page, explaining that “God is not done with me yet”.
The fake-news death report was published by a decidedly dodgy website that calls itself Houston News and uses the web address “houstonchronicle-tv.com”. By including “houstonchronicle” in the address, the bogus site tries to imply that it is associated with the genuine news outlet Houston Chronicle. But, no such association exists and the Houston Chronicle uses the web address www.chron.com.
Scammers and peddlers of fake-news often use false reports about the deaths of celebrities or famous people to attract more site visitors.
It is thus wise to verify any celebrity death reports that come your way on social media before you click on them and before you share them.
Usually, searching an online news aggregator such as Google News will quickly reveal if a circulating death report is true.
An example of the fake-news death post:
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
