The power of social networking has been shown again when Twitter began trending with the phrase #Mick Hucknall after reports emerged of the Simply Red’s singer’s death in a jet ski accident in the Turks and Caicos islands. However the singer's death was simply another false report of a celebrity passing away. Other celebs to have found themselves being reported as dead on the Web include Jeff Goldblum and Owen Wilson.

However, initially fans used social networking to spread the news until it emerged that the rumours of the jet ski crash were in fact false. It appears the whole story was a hoax with the wording of the initial report also appearing in an earlier false report about musician Innocent “Tuface” Idibia.

So, the next time you see a story about the death of a celeb on a social networking site you might be to wait until the story is confirmed before getting your hankies out.