Vanilla Ice ‘dies in a car crash’ – hoax spreads on Facebook

Has Vanilla Ice really died in a car crash?

After all, plenty of people have been sharing the news on Facebook in the last 24 hours – so it must be true, mustn’t it?

Messages like the following have been shared widely on the social network:

Vanilla Ice died in a single vehicle crash on Route 80 between Morristown and Roswell. He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics responding to the vehicle accident and was identified by photo ID found on his body. Alcohol and drugs do not appear to have been a factor in this accident – June 17, 2012

if you click on the link accompanying the messages you are taken to a website calling itself “Global Associated News”.

What’s interesting is that the url that people are clicking on includes “vanilla.ice” in the sub-domain. I wonder what happens if I change it to someone else?

My word – William Shakespeare has died in a car crash! No wonder he’s been a little less prolific of late..

Let’s have…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.

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