Rihanna Dead? Singer Becomes Victim of Twitter Death Hoax

Rihanna is dead. At least that's what Twitter is saying. However the "Pour it Up" singer didn't die. She's just the victim of an Internet death hoax. Rihanna is just fine.

Several tweets appeared on Sunday saying that the popular singer died. The CNN and TMZ twitter accounts both tweeted a message saying, R.I.P. Rihanna. The popstar has been found dead in her house some minutes ago.

Since TMZ and CNN are reliable news sources, it is easy to believe the message, but the accounts that sent out the tweets are fake accounts. The TMZ account that tweeted the message has the handle @TMZ_NEWS_ while the real TMZ account is simply @TMZ. The CNN account that tweeted the message had the handle @CNN__NEWS_. However CNN's real accounts are @CNN or @CNNBRK.

The accounts may look real but they're not. Those who clicked on the link at the end of the message also found that it had nothing to do with the death of Rihanna, but it brought users to a site about prison tattoos.

However not everyone caught on. Many fans who saw the tweets took the Twitter to question and mourn the death. Some examples of tweets include:

"Is Rihanna really dead?"

"Rihanna?? Dead?! WTF!!"

"My heart just dropped when i saw RIP RIHANNA"

Rihanna is just fine. She is in the middle of her Diamonds World Tour. Her next stop on June 10^th is Cardiff, Wales.

Rihanna isn't the only celebrity to become the victim of an Internet death hoax. Internet death hoaxes have become a trend over the past few years. Taylor Swift was also killed off by fake Twitter accounts a few months ago. However there are also death hoax generators. Some may come across a site that says Global Associated News. The site looks like a news site but it is simply a generated story in which someone entered a celebrity's name into a generator to make a story about them dying in an outrageous way like a car crash, jet ski accident or falling off of a cliff.