Fact Check

Charlie Sheen Dead?

Has actor Charlie Sheen died of a heart attack?

Published March 10, 2011

Claim:

Claim:   Actor Charlie Sheen has died of a heart attack.


FALSE


Examples:   [Collected via e-mail, March 2011]


Facebook is full of reports and viedos saying they found Charlie
Sheen dead this moring of apparent heart attack any truth to this?
 

There is a new Facebook wall post scam advertised as "RIP Charlie Sheen
found Dead at his House". This scam involves a wall post link within
Facebook. If you click on the wall post link, you will open a Facebook
Video page that is designed to look like a YouTube channel. If you
click anywhere on the screen, your Facebook account will be
"click-jacked" and you will be spreading the spam message via your
Facebook news feed. Clicking to play the video will open a security
check screen asking you to please complete a 30 second survey to verify
that you are human. The screen will also have the following wording
"Customize Your Facebook With a Theme". Clicking on this page in any way
will post the same message you clicked on to your Facebook wall and
download/install malware on your system.



 

Origins:   This item about the death by heart attack of actor Charlie Sheen, the Two and a Half Men star who has recently been in the news due to his public feud with the show's producers, is yet another Internet-spread celebrity death hoax. Like earlier reports of Sheen's purported demise, it's nothing more than a bit of Internet-based pranking. If if were true, it would be the lead story in every American news outlet, not merely a bit of Facebook chatter.

The account may have been inspired by a National Enquirer article (as summarized in the Daily Mail) alleging that Sheen had "suffered four near-fatal overdoses in the last six months" and that "friends and staff members at his Beverly Hills mansion have had to take swift action to prevent the the 45-year-old star from going into cardiac arrest by administering a Nitroglycerin pill, a tablet that contains a chemical compound commonly used to prevent a heart attack."

Facebook-based versions of the Charlie Sheen death hoax have been linked to clickjacking scams and the distribution of malware.

Last updated:   10 March 2011

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

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