Miley Cyrus’ death rumors became viral in the Facebook world and everyone was wondering when a rumor started swirling online that the twerker was in fact dead.
“(SHOCKING) Miley Cyrus Found Dead in Her Los Angeles Home! Country singer Miley Cyrus found overdosed this afternoon in her Los Angeles home,” the messages on Facebook read.
It was all a viral Facebook scam.
The scammers behind the hoax tried to convince people to click on their link by saying Miley Cyrus died in her Los Angeles home due to a drug overdose. The hoax is designed to spread bogus surveys that make money for the scammers behind it.
Apparently when users click on the post, they’re redirected to a website designed to look like Facebook. It then prompts them to share the page before going further. This ensures that the scam spreads even further.
Miley Cyrus is reportedly aware of the whole death hoax, and supposedly thinks it’s kind of entertaining.
This is not the first time Miley Cyrus’ name has been used as a part of an online hoax.
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Al Vaosa was revealed as one of the key players in the Manti Te’o fake girlfriend Lennay Kekua scandal.
Al Vaosa, who tweets under the username Jay Rahz, is a youth leader at Manti Te’o’s Christian Church and former pharmacy lab technician.
He joked about Lennay Kekua and even said he was “running her profile” last December.
He has even said on Twitter that he knew it was all a hoax back in 2008.
Al Vaosa, 28, claims at that point that he severed all ties with Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, who is the main suspect of being the person behind Lennay Kekua, even though she did not actually exist.
It is not currently known what the relationship between the two of them is or when it began.
Al Vaosa, who is also known as J.R., casts himself as a responsible young adult but he has questions to answer over his role in how Manti Te’o, the star linebacker with Notre Dame college, was apparently duped – and if he was not involved why he did nothing to stop it.
Al Vaosa was revealed as one of the key players in the Manti Te’o fake girlfriend Lennay Kekua scandal
In particular, Al Vaosa tweeted that Lennay Kekua was a fake two days before Manti Te’o found out – and at one point even appears to admit responsibility for the whole thing.
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo remains the main suspect in the bizarre hoax which has led to a 24-hour cat and mouse game on the Internet after it was first reported by Deadspin.com on Wednesday afternoon.
Manti Te’o appears to have maintained a relationship with Lennay Kekua for a year before her death in September from leukemia while he was leading his team to glory in an undefeated run to the BCS championship – turning him into the season’s star.
The death was six hours after his beloved grandmother died and sparked a groundswell of support from fans and the public at large.
Manti Te’o found out about the hoax on December 6 but it has now become public and dragged in at least two other football players, former Arizona Cardinals fullback Reagan Mauia and Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu.
Now the spotlight has turned to Al Vaosa.
On December 4, two nights before Manti Te’o found out the news, Al Vaosa Tweeted: “The person behind @LennayKay created the leukemia death story cause of @WhatIsCatfish.”
Catfish was the 2010 film about the dangers of Internet hoaxes.
The next night, 24 hours before the hoax was exposed, Al Vaosa appears to have become paranoid and Tweeted: “It’s so hard to tweet like nothing is going on LOL.”
He added: “I seriously believe we’re being watched!! No joke!”
Al Vaosa also added: “Omgah now I’m getting a blocked # calling me.”
The most interesting Tweet of all comes from Al Vaosa himself who on December 12 wrote to a relative named Celeste, whose tag is @ceeweezy51: “aka *goes back to running @LennayKay’s profile* lmfao.”
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NFL player Reagan Mauia was today named in the bizarre hoax surrounding Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o and his “dead girlfriend” Lennay Kekua after he claimed to have actually met her.
Former Arizona Cardinals fullback Reagan Mauia was mentioned in a tweet from “beyond the grave”, which was sent from an account purported to be Lennay Kekua. It asked that he and another NFL star be left out of the scandal.
Reagan Mauia claimed last night that Lennay Kekua was a real person who he met before Manti Te’o in 2011, and described her as being “athletic, tall and beautiful”.
Reagan Mauia was today named in the bizarre hoax surrounding Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o and his dead girlfriend Lennay Kekua after he claimed to have actually met her
This has now raised questions as to whether or not Manti Te’o was the first to fall victim to Lennay Kekua or whoever is behind what is being called a “sick joke”.
Lennay Kekua was reported to have died in September from leukemia while Te’o was leading his team to glory in an undefeated run to the January 7 BSC championship – turning him into the season’s star.
Two more football players have been dragged into the bizarre hoax surrounding Notre Dame football star Manti Te’o and his “dead girlfriend” Lennay Kekua after a tweet was sent from a Twitter account claiming to be hers.
Lennay Kekua was reported to have died in September from leukemia while Manti Te’o was leading his team to glory in an undefeated run to the January 7 BSC championship – turning him into the season’s star.
After the tale was revealed yesterday as a “sick joke”, it has now emerged that Manti Te’o may have not been the first victim of the fictitious Lennay Kekua, as Arizona Cardinals fullback Reagan Mauia and Pittsburgh Steelers star Troy Polamalu have been connected to her.
An ambiguous tweet was sent from a Twitter account late last night – the first since her supposed death from leukemia – defending Samoan players Reagan Mauia and Troy Polamalu.
It said: “It isn’t fair to drag Reagan and Troy into this…a lot of truths and myths need to be addressed here, and they will be at noon PST tomorrow.”
The user then announced she would be releasing a statement later today.
In another twist to the already complicated tale, Reagan Mauia told ESPN last night that Lennay Kekua was a real person and he had met her.
Reagan Mauia told the sports network: “This was before her and Manti. I don’t think Manti was even in the picture, but she and I became good friends.
“We would talk off and on, just checking up on each other kind of thing. I am close to her family.”
The sheer scale and detail that went into the hoax was exposed yesterday by Deadspin after an investigation revealed that Manti Te’o was the victim of online predators who invented not only the death of Lennay Kekua, but her actual existence.
It is an intricate and confusing story involving multiple people connected to the college football and now NFL world, though it is still not known who the ‘online predators’ are who seem intent on keeping the joke going.
Several people have since been dragged into the story as well as Reagan Mauia and Troy Polamalu.
A man who calls himself “Jay Rahz” on his Twitter account has taken to his page today to defend himself and claims he is not behind the hoax.
He names Manti Te’o’s old school friend Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, tweeting: “Everyone needs to hit up Ronaiah Tuiasosopo and get the truth.. the truth will set you free!!” and “Perhaps we should have NOT been joking about being @LennayKay cause now people are really believing and retweeting it.”
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo is also a friend of the woman whose picture was used purporting to be Lennay Kekua.
Manti Te’o may have not been the first victim of the fictitious Lennay Kekua, as Arizona Cardinals fullback Reagan Mauia and Pittsburgh Steelers star Troy Polamalu have been connected to her
Back in December, Jay Rahz – who knows Ronaiah Tuiasosopo – insinuated that he was the one behind Lennay Kekua’s Twitter account in online ‘chatter’.
On the night of the BCS title game, Jay Rahz posted: “I wonder if the real Lennay Kekua is watching the game…Cause I know the fake one that didn’t die is not watching over the Irish!”
Other tweets with took place on December 12 with user C. Tuiotimariner also hinted to the fact Jay Rahz might be behind the hoax when he posted that he “Goes back to running @LennayKay’s profile”.
C. Tuiotimariner writes back: “You’ll thank me later Lennay, I mean JayR.”
Delving back further into Jay Rahz’s Twitter history revealed a picture of Troy Polamalu taken almost three years with the caption: “First Skype victim Troy.”
Troy Polamalu is topless in the picture, hinting to the fact he may have been having an intimate Skype call with someone – someone who could have been claiming to be Lennay Kekua.
SB Nation discovered Lennay Kekua’s Twitter account was only created yesterday – meaning the original account had been deactivated and then picked back up again – after Deadspin broke the story.
The people behind it retweeted Manti Te’o’s posts to make it look like the account had been up since September 12 – the day Lennay Kekua is said to have died – because a retweet only shows the original date of the original post.
Lennay Kekua only follows four people on her Twitter feed – Manti Te’o, Troy Polamalu, Reagan Mauia and Rey Maualuga – another Samoan football player who lives in California.
In among the web of deceit is another woman who is accused of posing as Lennay Kekua’s sister U’ilani Rae Kekua.
There has been speculation that the faux-sister and her corresponding Twitter account was another invention of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.
U’ilani Rae Kekua frequently tweeted with Manti Te’o and a number of Notre Dame fans and people connected to the scandal. When she made arrangements to meet anyone, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo would often show up in her place.
U’ilani Rae Kekua would send pictures of herself sitting at her sister’s grave to Manti Te’o. Deadspin discovered that the woman in the pictures is Donna Tei – who doesn’t seem to have a relationship with anyone involved in the hoax.
Deadpsin connected her to the scandal after she contacted one of the men behind the Catfish documentary about the use of her picture.
The nation was captivated by the story of Mormon star linebacker Manti Te’o, who has been regarded as a future star of the NFL as he played an award-winning season despite personal tragedy.
In numerous published reports, Manti Te’o said that while this past season brought many triumphs to his life, there were also twin tragedies – the deaths of his 72-year-old grandmother and his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, within a day of each other.
A comprehensive investigation by Deadspin.com found that while his grandmother did indeed die on September 12, 2012, Lennay Kekua did not – nor did she even exist – thus beginning a confusing tale of lies and deceit.
When Deadpsin contacted the pretty brunette used in numerous pictures sent to Te’o and posted on Twitter purporting to be Kakua, she said she had never met the football star but did send one of the pictures used to an old school friend Ronaiah Tuiasosopo.
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo is known to be a good friend of Manti Te’o and the pair are said to have went to a USC game in Los Angeles at the end of November.
Family and friends of Ronaiah Tuiasosopo believe he is the one behind the Kekua hoax and even suggested Manti Te’o was not the first to have an online relationship with her.
They told Deadspin that Lennay Kekua was created in 2008 and had an online relationship with another guy for about one month, which ended after family members grew suspicious that she could never be found on the phone.
It was also pointed out that wherever Lennay Kekua was expected to be, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was there instead.
Two other sources said it was a simple prank which blew out of control after Manti Te’o became a footballing star almost overnight in the past season.
Ronaiah Tuiasosopo comes from a huge football family.
“Bicholim Conflict” was voted a “good article” – a Wikipedia badge of honor – and sat happily on the online encyclopedia for more than half a decade.
But editors have lately discovered a small issue with the site’s meticulously written 4,500 word article detailing the 17th century Bicholim Conflict.
It was entirely made up.
After five years of featuring the piece, which tells the story of “how colonial Portugal clashed with India’s massive Maratha Empire”, Wikipedia has admitted the entire conflict and books cited as sources for the piece are fictional, the Daily Dot reports.
The only source seems to be an unidentified and mischievous Wikipedia user dedicated to putting extraordinary amounts of effort into promoting his or her own fantasy historical conflict and getting one over on Wikipedia in the process.
“From 1640 to 1641 the might of colonial Portugal clashed with India’s massive Maratha Empire in an undeclared war that would later be known as the Bicholim Conflict,” the article read.
“Named after the northern Indian region where most of the fighting took place, the conflict ended with a peace treaty that would later help cement Goa as an independent Indian state.”
It continues, in precise detail, to explore what happened in the fictional war and lists some 17 references, as well as three suggestions for further reading – which all appear to be a work of the writer’s imagination.
After five years of featuring the Bicholim Conflict, Wikipedia has admitted the entire conflict and books cited as sources for the piece are fictional
The article’s conclusion may have given some hint of its veracity: “The conflict was fairly brief and its impact in terms of casualties and damage was minimal. For this reason, it has not become much of a talking point amongst filmmakers and bookwriters.”
The hoax was only uncovered when another user from Missouri, known as ShelfSkewed, finally realized the deception and nominated the article for removal.
“After careful consideration and some research, I have come to the conclusion that this article is a hoax – a clever and elaborate hoax, but a hoax nonetheless,” they wrote.
“An online search for <<Bicholim conflict>> or for many of the article’s purported sources produces only results that can be traced back to the article itself.”
Wikipedia acted on his warning and promptly removed the piece.
But not before it was labeled a “Good Article” by Wikipedia editors just two months after its creation in July 2007.
It was also nominated for a featured article – Wikipedia’s gold star for research.
And even though site admin didn’t approve the recommendation they didn’t stumble across the fact the entire piece was a wind-up
“Unfortunately, hoaxes on Wikipedia are nothing new, and the craftier they are, the more difficult it is to catch them,” William Beutler, president of Beutler Wiki Relations, a Wikipedia consulting firm, told Yahoo News.
“Anyone who’s clever enough to make up convincing sources and motivated enough to spend the time and skilled enough to write a plausible article can deceive whole Internet – at least for awhile.”
Indeed, several hoaxes have taken place on the crowd-sourced encyclopedia site, so much so that the encyclopedia has its own page detailing them.
At least one place where the Bicholim Conflict lives on.
