Ms. Lloyd (Photo: NBCSanDiego)

Last week, the story of 26-year-old mom to be Natasha Hill went viral, appearing on sites from BuzzFeed to CNET to Today, and even earning an SNL spoof. The Los Angeles based Ms. Hill was supposedly chosen from a pool of 80 applicants to be paid $5,000 by the baby-naming site Baby Ballot for letting the Internet choose her child's name. The list of names was supposed to be chosen by Belly Ballot and several advertisers, and the final names would be voted on in an online poll.

Now, Today reveals that the whole thing was actually just a big publicity hoax.

Natasha Hill is actually Natasha Lloyd, and she's an actress who's not even pregnant. Belly Ballot never reviewed applications, and explicitly hired Ms. Lloyd to pretend to be pregnant.  "We came up with the idea for the contest and we knew it would be controversial,” Ms. Moler told Today. “But we’re a start-up and we wanted to control the situation.”

In order to do so, they just made the whole thing up.

"We never thought it would get this big," said Ms. Moler, who has apparently never visited the Internet before.

(Screenshot: YouTube)

What does a now 9-year-old kid do after becoming the infamous subject of an infamous hoax? He fronts a metal band, natch.

In 2009, then 6-year-old Falcon Heene became wrapped up in an elaborate hoax staged by his parents, Mayumi Iizuka and Richard Heene. On the afternoon of October 15th, news broke that a balloon was floating over Fort Collins, Colorado, and that Falcon was trapped inside. The scoop quickly went viral, with people everywhere tuning in as the balloon swept across the skyline, squinting to try to see if there was a boy inside.

When the balloon eventually landed, it turned out that Falcon was never in it at all; he was hiding in the rafters above his parents' garage. A strange admission--"You guys said we did this for the show"--followed on a family CNN appearance, fueling rumors of a hoax. The Heenes were both eventually charged and forced to pay a $47,000 fine.

Now, the New Times reports that Falcon and his two older brothers, Ryo and Bradford, have a band called Heene Boyz, and they want to grow up to tour with Metallica. Their dad, the sketchy guy behind the original balloon hoax, is of course their manager.

When their dad encouraged them to write about something they believe in, they did just that. Their debut single is called "World of Warcraft."

You know what they say: if the balloon hoax scheme doesn't make you famous, you may as well try a record deal.

(Photo: Twitter)

If there's anything we've learned from the Violentacrez scandal, it's that anonymity on the Internet can be easily unmasked--for better or for worse. In the case of quadriplegic Internet sensation Dave on Wheels, it was for the worse. This is the story of how an anonymous blogger tricked the Internet into believing that he was a deaf, wheelchair-bound cerebral palsy sufferer using a special computer to communicate with his thousands of online fans.

David Rose was a 24-year-old Orange County resident who kept a blog, Facebook and Twitter account where he posted inspiring and wry missives about his life and battle with illness. (All of these accounts have since been deleted.) He had communicated with hundreds of online strangers as far back as 2007, when he first registered his Facebook profile.

Last week, Mr. Rose became an Internet sensation when The Chive published a series of his inspiring tweets. Two Chive models, Erin Willett and Sarah Hill, developed tight bonds with Mr. Rose, even creating YouTube videos especially for him. News outlets quickly caught onto the story of the paralyzed young man with a rosy outlook. He seemed a beacon of positivity in a place--in a world--where negativity flourishes. His earnestness made the Internet's snark seem mean-spirited and pointless.

Then--as suddenly as his fame had come--Mr. Rose passed away from pneumonia. His doting sister Nichole Rose, who helped him maintain his blog, published an inspiring letter he wrote just before his death. Kim Kardashian even tweeted a quote from the letter.

Mr. Rose had gained fame in his death. Next would come infamy.

A photo of Hunter Dunn, which was used as a photo of the non-existent Dave Rose.

Confined to a wheelchair, he claimed to tweet and blog from a machine called a Tobii, which tracks users' eye movements, allowing them to communicate. His sister, Ms. Rose, also maintained an active Twitter account and helped him update his blog.

But a reader named Kristi-Anne was skeptical about Mr. Rose. He claimed to use the Tobii, but Twitter showed that all of his tweets came from Tweetdeck. Upon further investigation, she discovered that the supposed photos of Mr. Rose were actually of someone named Hunter Dunn, a West Virginia man who actually has cerebral palsy and who actually uses Tobii to communicate.

It was then that Kristi-Anne, who started a blog called "Dave on Wheels Exposed," knew that this was all a hoax.

Kristi-Anne discovered that not only was Mr. Rose fake, but so was his sister, Ms. Rose. The duo were characters created by an anonymous blogger who--as soon as the story of Mr. Rose began gaining fame--knew he had to shut down the hoax before it escaped his control. This resulted in the sudden death of Mr. Rose, landing a final blow to his hoards of devoted fans.

In conclusion, Kristi-Anne wrote on her blog:

So all we can really be sure about is that "David Rose" is not David Rose, or a deceased young man born with cerebral palsy. We can also be sure that this story is much more complex than any of us really understand. We don't know for sure who, or why, but we can all assume. What we can be sure of is that there is someone out there, much more intelligent and inspirational than "David" ever was and his name is Hunter Dunn. And who knows, maybe this was fate's way of trying to give Hunter the credit he so clearly deserves.

An anonymous commenter using the handle "Nichole Rose" surfaced almost immediately after the blog went up, copping to the hoax and ironing out some details. In the comment, the anonymous blogger wrote that "no celebrity or fame was intended in this ruse....the quick and furious fame is actually what brought about the end of it all."

The commenter continued:

David was just a character, a part of my psyche, and fame would soon reveal what it has revealed today. So, the character passed. In hindsight it probably would have been better just to shut it all down and have everyone wonder what the hell happened, but the final post was meant to have the effect it did. To inspire people to love and live a better life, and the public knowledge that it came under this false pretense takes it all away. I hope that people who were moved by it still live by it, but it seems unlikely. It's possible that more damage has been done in your reveal than in the original deception.

The anonymous commenter went on to explain that not only does David Rose not exist, neither does his "sister" Nichole Rose. The picture he used of her was actually a headshot of a girl who was once in Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" video.

"To all of those people affected, from those I'd never exchanged a word with to the ones I'd had lengthy and heartfelt conversations with over the years, I apologize. I am very, VERY sorry for the hurt this has caused you," continued the commenter.

Ms. Vickery (Photo: Facebook)

It seems the hoaxter has been working on this complex ruse for quite some time. The David Rose Facebook page was started back in 2007, and after some online sleuthing, Betabeat has learned that Mr. Rose also had profiles on Stickam and PalTalk. Comments made by him on Stickam, however, reveal that his name was originally Davis Will Rose, and he was communicating with people through a gmail address: daviswillrose@gmail. Betabeat emailed this address, as well as the Gmail listed for Nichole Rose, but both emails failed permanently and bounced back to us.

It appears that Davis Will Rose also commented on a blog post that he had recently moved to San Francisco. His PalTalk profile states that he lives in San Francisco with his sister and her husband.

Had this persona always been confined to a wheelchair? In the comment he notes that he often "walks around" his new neighborhood:

Thank you Annie I love this post! I am new in area and have been reading San Francisco blogs to get a feel for the city. I have also been walking around Mission neighborhood a lot and I like Valencia, there are lot of nice bars and beautiful girls lol.

The thing is I have cerebral palsy and often get varied reactions so I almost never initiate conversation with a woman like this man did. Usually I either get women who won't look at me at all or will smile and engage me right off which is less than ten percent. The other day a woman ask me if I had tips for her about her 2 year old daughter has cp. Odd question but I know she was just seeing it as chance to learn something so we had a nice talk until her bus came.

I like this post because I see that I should be open more to initiate conversation. Thank you and thanks to the brave man who did not care if you would think he was a creepy weirdo!

Davis

daviswillrose@gmail.com

In addition, Mr. Rose's best friend Kate Vickery, whom the anonymous commenter claims was never in on it and was also a victim of the hoax, created her Twitter profile the day after Mr. Rose's blog went live on August 31, 2012. Her Facebook account has been around since January 2009. Ms. Vickery has extensive profiles across the web, including on Photobucket and YouTube. A tweet sent by Dave on Wheels to Ms. Vickery--who identifies as a lesbian--reveals that she had met Ms. Rose:

@shine7602 omg lol. that awesome pic. you meet nichole now you like her? i never meet guy who not like her lol. will tell you stories later.

But if Ms. Rose is fake, how is this possible? Is Kate Vickery behind this ruse, or was her name and likeness co-opted by the anonymous blogger?

Ms. Vickery's Twitter still exists. "I know u still check on me. How could u leave me? Our friendship was not a hoax, U lied, but you made me a better person.#betrayednotangry," she tweeted today.

Whoever is behind the David Rose hoax, it's clear that he used the persona of a sick, struggling young person in order to get closer to women online. The many David Rose profiles amassed across a plethora of social networks have collected hundreds of young female friends with whom Mr. Rose communicated publicly, at the very least.

The story of David Rose is yet another chapter in the the annals of Internet hoaxes. Dave on Wheels could have maintained his lie had the story not hit the mainstream media. But that meteoric rise brought skepticism, and the elaborate web woven by an anonymous blogger was eventually revealed for what it was all along: one big, fat lie.

(Photo: YouTube)

Yesterday morning, music news outlets across the Internet began reporting that human Girl Talk game Justin Bieber had his laptop and camera stolen at a concert in Washington state. On Wednesday, the Biebs tweeted out to his 29 million followers that his stuff had been ganked from the Tacoma Dome. "yesterday during the show me and my tour manager josh had some stuff stolen. really sucks. people should respect other's property," he lamented. "i had a lot of personal footage on that computer and camera and that is what bothers me the most. #lame #norespect"

Rumors of possible nude pictures existing on the stolen harddrive immediately began swirling. Mr. Bieber tweeted at the alleged thief, a user named gexwy: "@gexwy no matter what you have and what you post tomorrow i know my fans wont leave me. screw it. #toostrong."

Gawker published a link to the alleged nude photo, which was quickly debunked as not belonging to Mr. Bieber because the "bellybuttons didn't match." Teen girls everywhere sobbed silvery, mascara-tainted tears into their Victoria's Secret LOVE hoodies.

But today, Mr. Bieber and his team revealed that they had orchestrated an elaborate hoax on the media and the millions of beliebers out there. They released the video for Mr. Bieber's newest single, which is called "Beauty and the Beat" and features Nicki Minaj At the beginning of the video, the following screen flashes:

(Photo: YouTube)

You just got trolled by Justin Bieber. And how does that make you feel?

Mr. Bieber's manager Scooter Braun is a known expert media manipulator, having scooped the Biebs up from YouTube obscurity and painstakingly packaged him into the megastar he is today. Plus, with 29 million drooling Twitter followers, it's not like it's difficult to control the message--for better or for worse. How quickly we believed the stolen personal tech tale also speaks to how saturated our culture has become with celebrity hacking.

It all just seemed so... beliebable.

Update: The Daily News reports that Mr. Bieber's camp says his laptop actually was stolen. We just don't know what to belieb anymore.

Here's the video. Maybe it will cheer you up.

Mr. Vingiano and Mr. Ripps. (okfoc.us)

After some sleuthing, Betabeat discovered that WhoDat.biz is in fact a project of New York-based OkFocus, a full service digital agency run by Ryder Ripps and Jonathan Vingiano that's notorious for their PR stunts.

Mr. Vingiano confirmed to us over email that WhoDat.biz is "an OKFocus project."

We reached out to Small Girls PR, friends of OKFocus, and asked about the project.

"Way to punk the entire Internet, Mr. Vingiano!" we said.

"Yeah, he's very good at that," they responded. "He used to run a @Balenciaga twitter in which the L was actually an upercase i ... rihanna retweeted it."

OKFocus is also behind Is the L Train Fucked? and Dump.fm.

When we reached out to the fake Donda Media address, they originally responded with AIM slang--"a/s/l?" After some back and forth, we finally laid it on the line: "C'mon, Ryder," we wrote. "It will feel so good to be honest. And then you can get press for OkFocus while everyone still cares! This WSJ article obviously didn't do you justice."

The folks at OKFocus responded, "Hehe. Yes it's an OkFocus project." Mr. Ripps even duped his friends, posting a link to WhoDat.Biz on his Facebook page 18 hours ago, along with the following commentary:

Since everyone was fooled, we'll take it upon ourselves to dish out some grades on how long it took various sites to realize the whole thing was a hoax.

The Washington Post: F
Headline: Kanye West’s Donda Media unveils Whodat.biz, the ‘Facebook of Websites’
Time posted: 4:09 p.m. EST
Time redacted: Not yet (as of 7:03 p.m.)

Gizmodo: B
Headline: What the Hell is Kanye's Insane Tech Start Up? updated to This Can't Possibly Be Kanye's Insane Tech Start Up, Can It?
Time posted: 2:53 p.m.
Time redacted: 5:30 p.m. (That New "Donda Media" Site Is Fake As Hell (Updated))

Buzzfeed: B
Headline: Kanye's New Startup is Ridiculous
Time posted: 2pm-ish
Time redacted: 3:47pm (via a tweet and an update: Kanye's New Startup Is Ridiculous (Update: And Fake))

Betabeat: B, because it took a helpful tweet sent just after our original post to cue us in. Also, apparently everyone in New York knew; we were told we "need more Facebook friends."
Headline: Introducing Kanye West’s Bizarre New Startup, WhoDat.Biz
Time posted: 4:10 p.m. (but updated at 4:15 p.m. to Introducing Kanye West’s Possibly Fake But Definitely Bizarre New Startup, WhoDat.Biz [UPDATED])
Time redacted: 5:35 p.m. (Fake Kanye Site Punks Internet, 30 Minutes Later Internet Debunks Fake Kanye Site) and 6:13 p.m. (Meet OKFocus, the PR Stuntmen Behind Fake Kanye West Site WhoDat.biz)

PopDust: A, for being skeptical from the start.