The latest Rihanna is dead rumor--which have in the past included Rihanna supposedly dying in a hotel room, a plane crash, or a car crash--comes from a scam video.
The viral Facebook post shows a woman’s face that appears to have been beaten.
It’s been shared extensively and over 50,000 people have searched on Tuesday to see whether it’s true.
It’s not.
The fake post attempts to scam Facebook users into clicking on a page that shows a purported video detailed the rape attack.
However, there’s no video or anything attached to the video, and it just sends Facebook users to fake surveys that promise users the footage. The surveys offer people prizes but require people to give out their phone numbers.
The scammers then spam the numbers with text messages and advertising e-mails.
“Victims are also typically duped into sharing the link to the scam to their Facebook friends and family, before realising that there is no truth to the report,” says security expert Graham Cluley. “Don’t make life easy for the sick-minded scammers. Warn your friends about scams like this, and ensure that you aren’t duped in future – as you could be only making the problem worse.”
Other recent, viral hoaxes with survey scams include fake news of a shark eating a surfer in the ocean, the world’s largest snake in Brazil, and one about a large car accident. They all promise a video but there are none, and they merely send the users to survey sites.
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