Another death hoax, this time with popular actress Maine Mendoza as the victim.
A website falsely reported March 27 that Mendoza was found hanging in her room that day.
The website viral-abscbn.blogspot.com is an imposter, having arrogated the name of ABS-CBN for its URL. This is a common practice of websites carrying fake news. Another giveaway is the website’s name: ABIAS-CBN
The story came out during Holy Week. That week the actress starred in the March 28 taped episode of Eat Bulaga’s Lenten special.
Mendoza’s official Twitter account shows her tweeting on March 28 that she had sore throat while on vacation. She even joked, “I swear I’m ready to slit my throat any second.”
On April 2, her Facebook and Twitter accounts show her ecstatic over the launching of her “Humans of Barangay” project for Eat Bulaga’s Juan for All segment.
The imposter website ran two recycled photos: one of Mendoza and the other showing actors Joey de Leon and Alden Richards in grief. De Leon and Richards’ photo first appeared in 2015 on De Leon’s Instagram account.
The biggest traffic generator on social media is Facebook page President Duterte Supporters.
Editor’s note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation.
