Considering the Elvis Presley sightings continue to this day, it's not surprising that people are already seeing the resurrection of Michael Jackson.
But here's hoping the 880,000-plus people who clicked on a YouTube video that purported to show the King of Pop, alive as ever, getting out of a coroner's van and entering an unidentified building didn't get their hopes up too much.
German TV station RTL has admitted to making the video in Cologne for its magazine Explosiv and sending it out into the ether on Aug. 25 to see what people would do with the infauxmation.
And while the broadcaster couldn't poll the thousands who watched to see how convincing the footage was, it found that there were obviously plenty of people curious enough to take a look and share it with their friends.
"We sent out a press release before we did the video to alert everyone that it was fake, but once posted it spread really fast," RTL spokesman Heike Schultz told CNN.com.
"This was so obviously fake in the case of Michael Jackson, it just was not possible," she said.
Schultz said that the reaction to RTL's little experiment have been mixed, with some fans offended and creeped out that the station used Jackson's death as its variable and them as guinea pigs, while others appreciated the lesson in how easy it is to spread false information.
And RTL might never know how many people it fooled or could have fooled if someone hadn't made a companion video, also posted Aug. 25, breaking down all the inconsistencies in the original video, which was posted by user "michaeljacksonhoax" and titled, "Michael Jackson alive?! Seen coming out of coroner's van!"
Which goes to show that, while you may be able to put one over on some, there's always a guy out there with too much time on his hands to put you in your place.
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Mind boggled by all the Internet hoaxes out there? La Toya Jackson's new video tribute to her brother is easier to believe.