The mother of singer-actress Sarah Geronimo has been made victim of a new death hoax, claiming she took her life because she “could not accept” her daughter’s recent marriage.
The undated fabricated report by website 0utm0st.w0rldt0pfi1es.xyz began circulating about two days after Divine Geronimo, known in the entertainment industry and to fans as “Mommy Divine,” reportedly turned up uninvited at her daughter’s wedding to long-time beau Matteo Guidicelli on Feb. 20 in Taguig City.
No legitimate news organization has reported Mommy Divine “committing suicide.”
0utm0st.w0rldt0pfi1es.xyz’s hoax, which redirects to a different website with the web address gl0bal.newsandbeyond.com when opened, carried the headline, “lNA ng Aktres, Singer na si SARAH GER0NIM0 Nagpakamatay Matapos Di Matanggap Ang Pagpapakasal ni Sarah (Mother of actress, singer Sarah Geronimo commits suicide after not being able to accept Sarah’s marriage).” It was accompanied by a counterfeit “video report” from GMA News TV, which the site claimed is about Mommy Divine’s demise.
The clip does not even provide enough information to make such a claim, as it stops playing after three seconds.
A reverse image search shows that the short clip comes from a two-minute report published Sept. 19, 2014 on the YouTube channel of Balitanghali, an afternoon news program on GMA News TV. It was about the murder of the mother of actress Cherry Pie Picache that month.
The trimmed version of the report that was used to mislead netizens and uploaded on YouTube, has been viewed over 207,000 times since going live on Feb. 22.
Gl0bal.newsandbeyond.com uses the same scheme employed in other celebrity death hoaxes previously debunked by VERA Files Fact Check, where the embedded video, which is usually uploaded on YouTube, would only play for a few seconds. As it stops, it directs viewers to first share the “obituary” on Facebook before being able to watch it in full.
The page also hosts at least 18 advertisements upon opening — an attribute also reflected in past death hoaxes — which a web developer has told VERA Files Fact Check is done by disinformation publishers ostensibly to monetize traffic to their websites. (See: VERA FILES FACT CHECK: The scheme behind scams: Why death hoaxes don’t die)
0utm0st.w0rldt0pfi1es.xyz and gl0bal.newsandbeyond.com’s fake report surfaced days after the Guidicelli and the younger Geronimo’s secret wedding rocked the Philippine entertainment industry. The event also went trending on social media following reports of an alleged scuffle between the groom and Sarah’s bodyguard, following Mommy Divine’s “unexpected arrival” at the ceremony.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
