A death hoax about Alan Greenspan went around this morning before being debunked by reporters and shut down by twitter, so let's look at the strategy used to promote it.
First, the hoaxer established a fake account with a timely tweet about winning the Nobel. It kind of worked! Some trustworthy people on Twitter amplified it. 
Then, once the account was established, came hoax. It wasn't very successful. There are only a few hundred likes and retweets, reporters called it out and Twitter suspended the account.
The hoaxer himself is known (here's a Guardian story about him from SIX YEARS AGO). And you can see with the one like on the account that he was looking to stir up some trouble. theguardian.com/technology/201…
This isn't a new strategy but can be an effective one. Death hoaxes are easy to disprove but other ones are tougher. It's also often a ploy to get attention or in the media.
Reporters have to remember that we're targets for disinformation and need to be vigilant accordingly to avoid amplifies lies and the authors of those lies.
Ok that's it happy Tuesday everyone!
