Internet hoax news stories on Newser

Taylor Lautner Gay Cover Fakes Out Net

Rob Quinn — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:57:51 CST

A phony People magazine on which Taylor Lautner supposedly comes out of the closet is a fake, but it fooled plenty of people as it spread around the Internet, Gossip Cop reports. "Tired of rumors, the Twilight star opens up about his decision to finally come out,” reads the cover,...

Jon Bon Jovi: I'm Not Dead

Rob Quinn — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:02:00 CST

Jon Bon Jovi wants his fans to know that, contrary to rumors sweeping the Internet, he hasn't gone out in a blaze of glory. A news blog printed a fake report of the rocker's death which quickly spread across Facebook and Twitter, E! Online reports. When Bon Jovi learned of...

Woman Pretends to Be 20 People in Cruel Online Hoax

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:08:05 CDT

Paula Bonhomme met volunteer firefighter Jesse Jubilee James on an online message board in 2005. Emails and letters led to near-daily phone calls, and in 2006, Bonhomme left her unhappy marriage and planned to move to Colorado to be with James, even though they'd never met face to face. But...

Hoaxer Convinces Dad His Daughter Died in Tsunami

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 12:35:05 CDT

Ashley Russell found the information on a missing persons website set up for victims of the Japan earthquake and tsunami: His daughter, Alice Byron, was dead. But several hours later, the Australian man learned the truth: Byron was alive, and he had been the victim of an online hoax. The...

'Tree Octopus' Hoax Shows Kids Believe Anything Online

Rob Quinn — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 07:28:58 CST

Today's students have a worrying habit of believing everything they read on the Internet, according to a researcher who found it easy to trick young people into believing that endangered "tree octopuses" live in the Pacific Northwest. Students directed to a phony website highlighting the creature's plight continued to insist...

Limbaugh Falls for Wikipedia Hoax

Evann Gastaldo — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 07:11:06 CDT

Even though Rush Limbaugh once said, "Everybody in the world knows you don't believe anything on Wikipedia," he managed to get himself fooled by, yep, a Wikipedia hoax. Limbaugh, speaking Tuesday about the judge who is presiding over a challenge to the president's health care reform, called him an "avid...

Bill Cosby: I'm Not Dead

M. Morris — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:47:10 CDT

Bill Cosby is not dead, despite what you might have read on the Internet this afternoon. In fact, the 73-year-old comedy legend is alive, well, and making up words on Twitter, reports WPIX . Using a term he created after a similar false alarm in February, he tweeted today, "Again, I'm...

'Osama bin Laden' Kicked Off Facebook

M. Morris — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:45:00 CDT

Facebook has shut down a month-old page purporting to be the online presence of Osama bin Laden. "There is no evidence to suggest that the account in question or the other dozens of people who have tried to present themselves as Osama Bin Laden have any relation to the terrorist,...

Gizmodo, Drudge Fooled by Fake 'TSA Porn'

Harry Kimball — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:50:00 CST

Gizmodo gets about “30,000 views in a single day” of a post with hot TSA full body scanner pics of an attractive female, Kashmir Hill writes, but it would be wise “to add a ‘this is a hoax’ update” since the photos are obviously fake. The site poached a...