Fact Check

Sylvester Stallone Death Hoax

Celebrity death hoax claims actor Sylvester Stallone been killed in a car accident.

Published Aug. 25, 2014

Claim:

Claim:   Actor Sylvester Stallone has been killed in a car accident in Australia.


FALSE


Example:   [Collected via Facebook and Twitter, August 2014]


"You need to hit the LIKE BUTTON to watch this video. (MANDATORY) ... Exclusive News: ... Sylvester Stallone Died In A Horrible Car Accident!"



 

Origins:   Like previous death hoaxes involving actors (including Jackie Chan), the Sylvester Stallone death hoax circulating on social media sites appears to stem from common culprit mediafetcher.com, a "fake news" generator. Several such sites exist, allowing Facebook and Twitter users to plug a celebrity's name into the generator and produce a "news story" reporting the star's recent death.

While these death hoaxes appear on Facebook and Twitter with relative frequency, the most recent iteration of the Sylvester Stallone death hoax looks to be slightly different. Most links point back to a specific domain that appears to be a "clickjack" attempt, inducing users to "like" a page in order to see the "shocking footage" of Stallone's purported car crash demise.

The original hoax article states:

Actor Sylvester Stallone died in a single vehicle crash between Ipswich and Willowbank in Queensland as confirmed by Royal Queensland Police - August 25, 2014 The accident occurred at approximately 5:30 a.m. (UTC/GMT +10). Sylvester Stallone is believed to have been in the area while on vacation. He was identified by photo ID found at the scene. Alcohol and drugs do not appear to have been a factor in this accident.

 

Many of the Stallone death hoax-related links lead back to a page that resembles a video embedded on Facebook and appears to host BBC footage, lending false credibility to the posts:

However, clicking "like" will just serve the scammers' purpose by spreading the hoax on your own Facebook page, and closing the page once you've opened it is impeded by pop-ups.

Sylvester Stallone himself is alive and well, and currently circulating rumors involving the 68-year-old Rocky star's alleged car crash death are verifiably untrue.

Last updated:   25 August 2014

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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