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Toronto Police Uncover Ariana Grande Fan's Twitter Suicide Hoax To Promote Pop Star's Album

Toronto Cops Bust Bizarre Twitter Suicide Hoax Promoting Pop Star
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Although it appears Ariana Grande had no clue what took place, a "fan" of the Nickelodeon star-turned-pop singer staged a sick hoax last week by tweeting she would kill herself in order to apparently promote Grande's upcoming studio album.

The Toronto Star, which described the incident as a " morbid — and possibly illegal — marketing campaign," reported that local police and 911 dispatchers began following the "suicidal" tweets from @ButerasCandiess.

The fan continued in a series of tweets counting down the minutes until she would end her life. A Toronto nurse on Twitter noticed the fan and contacted Scott Mills, a Toronto Police social media spokesman.

"I triaged it from a police perspective and I decided it did appear to be someone who was in distress," Mills told the Star. "The logical conclusion is either that they've committed suicide, or there is medical distress from swallowing pills in this case."

Police then contacted Twitter directly asking for the IP address of @ButerasCandiess which tracked the location to Greece. Yet the address was deemed to be a false proxy with the tweets actually coming from the United States. When Toronto Police contacted the person responsible, she admitted it was all fake.

The tweeter, whoever it may be, has since tried to apologize and distance herself from any connection between what she did and Grande's album release.

"This is a huge waste of our 911 dispatchers, our intelligence people, and our communications resources," Mills added. Had the person behind the hoax been Canadian, charges of public mischief could be laid. However, she admitted it was also effective: “It gets people to look at the Twitter feed, right?”

Grande is managed by Scooter Braun who also represents Justin Bieber, who was hit by a similarly twisted twitter hoax earlier this year with the #CuttingForBieber "prank."

Grande was in Toronto last week performing in the lead up to her debut album release "Yours Truly," which comes out today. She's made no comment on the hoax but was dealing with her own social media problems last week when somebody hacked into her Facebook account.

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