Paul Walker’s “Death Hoax” Never Happened

Reports of the death of Paul Walker were clouded by a fake “death hoax” report from a website which posts nearly identical death hoax articles for hundreds of celebrities. In short, there was not a death hoax for Paul Walker the day before he died.

Paul Walker “Death Hoax”

12/1/13 Update: A photo is circulating allegedly shows Walker injured in a hospital bed, with an accompanying story that his reps confirmed he is still alive. That photo is not of Paul Walker. Read the full story here: Fake Paul Walker Photo Circulates Amid Hoax Confusion

12/3/13 Update: There is also a video alleging to show Walker denying his death reports. For that story, see: Hoax: Paul Walker Video Claiming to Show Actor Denying His Death Reports

When initial reports of Paul Walker’s death hit the news, fans went online to see if these reports were in fact true. Many of these fans found a report of a Paul Walker “death hoax” from the website Mediamass, with a date of November 29.

Mediamass, however, posts hundreds of “death hoax” articles for celebrities who are still living – and never actually had death hoaxes in their names. Below is a screenshot for a similar “death hoax” story on Mediamass about John Travolta. There have been no death hoaxes recently about Travolta, nor were there any such hoaxes about Paul Walker.

The stories on Mediamass are all virtually the same, and the site automatically updates the dates of these articles to keep the stories “recent,” thus the automatically-generated date of November 29 for Walker’s story.

A “death hoax” article similar to the Travolta screenshot above also existed for Paul Walker – until the actor died. Once word of the actor’s death became verified news, Mediamass changed the story “confirming” Walker’s death. By this point, many fans had seen the original “death hoax” article and posted it to “refute” Walker’s death. Some questioned why there was a “death hoax” for Walker a day before his death.

 

There was, however, no Paul Walker death hoax on November 29. Readers had found the fake Mediamass article with that date  – and which is duplicated for virtually all celebrities and is complete fiction.

See our complete article on Mediamass here.

Bottom Line

Paul Walker’s death was not a hoax, and there was not a death hoax the day before his death.

Article updated 12/1/2013