Is Brad Pitt Dead? The Latest Death Hoax Is Actually Harmful To Your Computer’s Health

Brad Pitt is not dead, but anyone curious enough to click the link about the actor’s alleged suicide going viral this week may find that it’s potentially fatal to their computer’s health.

In the wake of his bombshell divorce from Angelina Jolie, there have been plenty of rumors circulating about Brad Pitt’s alleged cheating with actress Marion Cotillard and the custody battle that could be ahead for the couple formerly known as Brangelina.

But one of the biggest rumors was that Brad Pitt had taken his life. This death hoax took the form of a fake article from FoxNews.com, with the headline “FOX BREAKING NEWS: BRAD PITT Found dead [SUICIDE]” blaring beneath a black-and-white picture of the actor. The link made the rounds on Facebook, getting plenty of attention from concerned fans.

Those looking to find more about Brad Pitt’s alleged suicide — or just trying to verify that it was indeed a hoax — ran into a bit of trouble. When they clicked on the link, the user was directed to a screen asking “Fox Breaking News” to have access to their user profile.

As Snopes noted, this is a common tactic among celebrity death hoax stories that allows the site to gain access to their personal information and potentially infect computers with malware.

To those still curious about what they missed, Snopes advanced through the shady page to find the meat of the story — a poorly written paragraph barren of details claiming that Pitt had killed himself at a gun range.

“Brad Pitt, 52, a multiawarded American actor and husband of Angelina Jolie, 41, shot himself in the head at a shooting range on Sunday. He was under significant stress because the couple ‘were going through a divorce and he had a history of depression’, sources have said.”

The Brad Pitt death hoax is just the latest in an increasingly common trend of sites spitting out fake death notices targeting celebrities. While these stories were few and far between as recently as five years ago, they have now become a weekly occurrence as the hoaxers see them as a way to drive traffic to their websites or dig into personal information of the people fooled by them.

Many celebrities have been targeted, including Brad Pitt’s soon-to-be-former wife, Angelina Jolie, with reports spreading earlier this summer that she had taken her life.

There are many celebrities who have been hit multiple times, including actor Jaden Smith who actually saw a string of death hoaxes that lasted several weeks over the summer (and are still popping up even now). As the U.K.’s Mirror noted, these stories were really a ruse to get into the personal information of Facebook users, just like the Brad Pitt death hoax.

“The hoax – which involves getting permission to post on the user’s page on the social media site – has been spread by people noticing it on their newsfeed as more and more people click on the fake link.

“The spam apps lured many users in, but Jaden – who is yet to respond to the rumors – is alive and well four years after a similarly cruel prank.”

Even though the death hoax story has been easily debunked, it appears that Brad Pitt will not get out the rumor mill so easily. On Thursday, there were reports that he was being investigated for child abuse — a claim the Los Angeles Police Department denies — and another report that he fathered a child with alleged mistress Marion Cotillard — the actress has confirmed that she is pregnant, but said it is with her longtime boyfriend.

LAPD deny there is a criminal investigation into Brad Pitt https://t.co/19P3anMV6e

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) September 22, 2016

Despite the ample evidence that Brad Pitt is not dead, the death hoax story still managed to fool many people, with tributes and condolences still pouring in on Twitter and other social media.

[Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]