Lady GaGa fans were shocked to discover a Facebook message claiming the superstar singer had been found dead in her hotel room this week. A spate of fake Bbc News reports began circulating on the social networking site, encouraging users to click false links set up by money making scammers.
According to the security site Sophos, the Facebook news headline read, "Lady Gaga Found Dead in Hotel Room" and contained the sub heading, "This is the most awful day in US history". Fans of the pop superstar were more inclined to click the link because of a video thumbnail image of Bbc news presenters. It's not the first time scammers have attempted to make money by falsely circulating the death of Gaga, Sophos says, "We've seen scams very much like this, many times before. Facebook could do a much better job, in my opinion, at helping users avoid falling for tricks like this and clean-up a lot of the mischievous pages and dangerous links on its network". The 'Born This Way' singer is a popular victim for death hoaxers, while actor Jackie Chan and Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner have also been forced to reassure fans of their health in recent months.
Despite being snubbed at the MTV Video Music Awards last month, Lady Gaga has been nominated for six awards at their European counterpart, the Mtv Europe Music Awards (EMA's).