According to messages that are circulating rapidly via social media websites, young singing superstar Justin Bieber has died in a single vehicle car crash. The reports claim that Justin was pronounced dead at the scene and identified via photoID on his body.

However, the claims in the message are false. His legions of young fans will be glad to know that Justin is alive and well. In fact Justin is just the latest victim in a long, sorry, series of celebrity death hoaxes.

Many of these false death rumours originate from several tasteless "prank" websites that allow users to create fake news stories detailing the supposed death of various celebrities. Users can generally pick from several "news" templates, add the name of their chosen celebrity and then attempt to fool their friends by sharing the bogus story. One such template is the "car accident" story used in this hoax. Other versions falsely claim that the targeted celebrity has died in a snow boarding accident or fell to his or her death from a cliff while filming in New Zealand.

Before passing on any message that claims that a famous - or infamous - person has died, it is always wise to check the story via a reputable news source. If a well-known person does die, the news is sure to be widely reported by the main-stream media, so a quick search of a news source such as Google News should quickly reveal if the claims in a message are true or false.

Users should also be aware that some of these false celebrity death messages may contain links that lead to survey scams or malware websites.