Video tricks fans into believing the worst

Jan 5, 2015 09:38 GMT  ·  By
Fake video claims Ricky Martin was killed in a car crash: he wasn't, he's OK
   Fake video claims Ricky Martin was killed in a car crash: he wasn't, he's OK

Here’s another example of why you should never believe everything you read or see on the Internet: according to the latest report, beloved singer Ricky Martin, aka one of the hottest men on earth (if you ask his millions of fans), has died in a fiery car crash.

Moreover, there’s even a video of the crash, which shows him driving his convertible BMW into the wall on the freeway as he’s trying to avoid a collision with another vehicle. You will find it embedded below, at the end of the article.

Ricky Martin is dead

The video plays like a Breaking News segment, with the reporter saying they received footage of the accident straight from the guy who shot it, thanks to his dashboard camera. The video shows a man’s body being thrown out of the BMW after impact, with the car bursting into flames afterwards.

“Multi-platinum artist Enrique Martin Morales, known by the stage name ‘Ricky Martin,’ died at 4:30 pm eastern time while driving his BMW CONVERTIBLE CAR on a freeway in Los Angeles, CA,” the report says.

As per usual, to make the footage more convincing, the report in the description includes a quote from Sergeant Hall with the HPD accident division, saying that Martin crashed because he tried to avoid impact with a slow-moving car on the left lane. This is when he lost control of his own car.

The singer “died” on impact and 3 other people were injured in the crash, people from the other cars. Their injuries are listed as “minor,” but the report claims they were taken to the hospital as a precaution.

Obviously, the report is false

It’s enough to look at the video to be able to tell that it’s fake, because the voiceover doesn’t match what the report is actually saying. Then, though the video tries to make this look as if it were an ABC News report, the fact that it was not posted on the ABC YouTube channel should be a dead giveaway, if you will excuse our pun.

This is just another mean and rather stupid hoax, trying to off a celebrity in the virtual realm to drive traffic.

But at least Martin has a sense of humor about it, which is something that can be said about many other celebrities in his situation, having to learn online or from friends of their recent demise. He posted the photo below to his Instagram account right after the “news” broke and fans started freaking out on social media: that’s how sunset looks like in “heaven.”

 
#Sunset in #heaven A photo posted by Ricky (@ricky_martin) on Jan 1, 2015 at 1:38pm PST