A death hoax about Hollywood actor Dwayne Johnson, also known as The Rock, is doing the rounds on social media. A fake link, which appears to be of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) at first glance, features Johnson's image as the thumbnail, along with Rest In Peace (RIP) written above 'Dwayne Johnson (1972-2019)'.
The image also has a BBC News logo on it. The headline of the article reads, ".BBCNEWS: Dwayne 'TheRock' Johnson Dies at 47 After a Terrible Stunt Attempt Failed.| BBC News." It has an excerpt that reads, "Stunt crew failed to rescue Dwyne Jhonson resulting to negligence."
Though the headline credits the news to the BBC, the link of the article however, isn't from the otherwise verified news portal. It is TOPNEWS.LIVEBROADCAST.COM . One such viral post of The Rock's death hoax can be viewed below.
Death hoax directs to spam link
BOOM could ascertain the news is a piece of misinformation as no such reports on Johnson was carried in the international media.
Furthermore, the web page that one is redirected to, has many discrepancies.
On clicking the link stated in multiple viral posts, we were directed to a page which looked like a copy of the BBC's dashboard. Interestingly, there is also a logo of the BBC that can be spotted easily.
Just below the BBC's logo, a time stamp of '15 mins ago' can be observed. This indicates that the article was uploaded to the page 15 minutes ago and should be treated as 'breaking news'. However, BOOM noticed that the time stamp doesn't change on clicking on the link at multiple intervals.
There is also a discrepancy in the number of views on the video. The video appears to be a 'live' video, with real time views by 2900 people. However, below the Live icon, another number states that the video was viewed 1.6 million times.
Furthermore, when clicked on the video, an anchor appears to be reading a news bulletin about The Rock's death, that abruptly ends.
She can be heard saying, "New details this morning on the death of Fast & Furious...". The video then ends, and switches to a warning that claims that the content ahead is graphic in nature.
The same video is uploaded to YouTube, with a similar false narrative.
On clicking 'Uncover Now' one is redirected to an error page. The same happens on repeating the process multiple times.
Earlier, in 2011 Dwayne Johnson had put to rest all rumours around his death. In a Facebook post, he stated, "Rumors of my death are false - Im still "Bringin' It' 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year - including leap year!"
The Rock updated his fans about his upcoming film on his Facebook account, earlier this week.
Earlier, a similar link was viral on social media with claims that singer Celine Dion passed away. Read BOOM Bangla's debunk here.