Charlie Sheen Dead? Nope and don’t click that link!
Social Media Basics
Facebook is full of reports and videos saying they found Charlie Sheen dead this morning of apparent heart attack. There is no truth to this and don’t click the link if you see it.
The Facebook wall post is a scam advertised as “RIP Charlie Sheen found Dead at his House”.
This scam involves a wall post link within
Facebook that will open a Facebook Video page that is designed to look like a YouTube channel if you click it.
Once on the fake 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.
Further, 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 with 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.
This scam involving the Two and a Half Men star’s death via heart attack is yet another Internet-spread celebrity death hoax
Sheen, who recently has been in the news due to his public feud with the show’s producers and serious partying, was the subject of earlier reports of his purported demise.
They’re nothing more than a bit of Internet-based pranking. If these stories were true they would be the lead story in every American news outlet, not merely a bit of Facebook chatter.
An article in the National Enquirer probably inspired this scam. The article alleges 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.”
About Cody Swann
Cody Swann is an entrepreneur, developer, strategist, banged up ex-football walk-on, retired body builder and former journalist born and raised in South Florida. He currently splits his time between his hometown of Stuart, FL and Los Angeles, CA. Cody founded Gunner Technology, a highly sought after digital agency, specializing in helping companies maximize profits through custom web development, technology efficiencies, social media strategy and search engine marketing.
As a manager and developer at ESPN for nearly six years, Cody led development and vision for two of ESPN’s most popular online features: Sports Scoreboards and GameCasts. Additionally Cody oversaw all aspects of MyESPN and ESPN’s social network, ESPN Fan Profiles. Cody worked with Technology, Editorial, Sales, Marketing and relevant business stakeholders to mold ESPN’s social media strategy, develop custom applications for it and execute it. Under his direction, ESPN successfully ported large portions of its core product from a proprietary Java stack to an open source Ruby on Rails stack, capable of standing up and performing under the tremendous load world's most popular sports site delivers.
Cody began forging his technological knowledge more than 10 years ago, developing and designing websites in college. His development work has included web development, web design, content writing, digital photography and digital video production for award-winning sites like Gainesville.com, GatorSports.com and ESPN.com. He has helped set digital strategy and direction for companies in the New York Times Regional Newspaper group, ESPN, ABC and Disney.
He is a recognized expert in web development, social media strategy, search engine optimization, conversion optimization, analytics tracking and business planning. He has worked with large interactive media companies to small and medium sized businesses. Cody motivates and inspires creative teams to deliver superb, polished work under tight deadlines.