Death Hoaxes Sweep Twitter: Taylor Swift, Zayn Malik & Corbin Bleu All Targeted

First came claims that Bleu, the beloved star of "High School Musical" had died. The hashtag #RIPCorbin Bleu and his name both trended nationally on the popular social networking site for much of Sunday evening.

But the rumors were cleared after a couple of hours when Bleu issued a tweet stating that he was in fact still alive, and that he was enjoying himself at Disney World with friends.

Shortly after 9 p.m. EST Sunday, Bleu confirmed his continued existence via his official Twitter account:

"Hey everyone I'm not dead!! Don't believe the crazy stories. I'm at Magic Mountain having fun!!" he tweeted.

Then he tweeted out a photo of himself with friends in order to provide proof that he had not passed away.

Briefly following the clearing up of the Bleu death hoax came a slew of tweets claiming that Malik, a popular member of pop group One Direction, had died.

The term #RIPZaynMalik trended nationwide, echoing the format of the rumor aimed at Bleu, but it turns out that Directioners had nothing to fear as there appears to be no evidence that Malik is dead.

By the time Malik's name had been brought into the mix, people seemed to have become less trusting of the rumors, as nearly every tweet with the #RIPZaynMalik hashtag was either a joke or a rejection of the assertion that he is dead.

Many of the jokes made reference to Malik's infamous comments to a fan about "the roller coaster" of life. Here's one by @JB1DSwag:

"the roller coaster that is life has come to and end I guess.," the user tweeted.

But not everyone immediately got that it was a hoax, as @ZaynWhot apparently believed the hype.

"#RIPzaynmalik i will never forget ur eyes ur beautiful smile that could light up my whole world," she tweeted.

And then at about 10 p.m. Taylor Swift was brought into the Twitter rumor mill, as -- you guessed it -- #RIPTaylorSwift began to trend nationally, stoking fears that the Grammy-winning singer had died.

But it appears that the star was just another victim in the seemingly endless stream of Twitter death hoaxes.

Twitterer @Wanksvilleniall made a joke about the fact that Swift often uses her personal life as inspiration for her hit songs in the following tweet:

"#RIPTaylorSwift guys we better stop before she writes a song about us," he tweeted.

It appears that the hoax about Swift came about as the result of a concerted effort by folks who saw that it was pretty easy Sunday evening to get such rumors to spread like wildfire on Twitter, judging by the following message from @NiamPie:

"#RIPTaylorSwift LET'S TWITTER KILL TAYLOR SWIFTTT"

After this strange night of Twitter death hoaxes, it is advised that a large dose of skepticism be applied the next time such a rumor makes the rounds on the social network.