Updated 29 November with additional context after I analyzed the malicious link. TL;DR: Tom Hanks is not dead, and the fake news link on Facebook leads to a malicious website. As an aside, Tom Hanks is not the first celebrity to be used in fake news scams, and I am sure he won't be the last. Other recent malvertisements have claimed the demise of Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Beyonce, and even Facebook's own CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
No, Tom Hanks is not dead. However, a malicious advertisement circulating on Facebook over Thanksgiving weekend uses that headline as bait; readers that click the "news story" to find out more instead get more than they bargained for.
Instead of a news article, the advertisement leads to a web page that blares an incessant alarm sound and displays the following warning message. As a clever twist, the malicious content itself imitates Google's own malicious website warning.
Victims that call the phone number on the screen will no doubt be instructed to pay a "Microsoft Technical Support" fee to have the malware removed - a twist on the classic technical support scam.
The bulk of this was written a year and a half ago. This election cycle has brought about caustic attitudes, and a very large number of people stating they simply would not vote this year. I have for the most part stayed out of any political discourse this season, but the following tweets from Leslie "Hacks4Pancakes" Carhart spurred me to update my post.
The current presidential election cycle has truly brought out the worst in this country. I've seen caustic arguments between friends and family members. Individuals in each camp call supporters of the other everything from foolish to evil (frequently in less kind terms). Over and over again I hear comments of "I can't vote for anyone but I surely have to vote against so-and-so" or "there's no one worth voting for so there's no use voting." Lost in the noise is that November 8 is about far more than just who will occupy the Oval Office for the next four years.
The soon-to-be President of the United States will appoint at least one Supreme Court justice (replacing Justice Antonin Scalia, who passed away this year). Given the ages of other currently-serving justices, he or she may well appoint as many as four. The current court is an evenly-balanced mix of justices who tend toward liberal and conservative; for the incoming President to replace four justices would put decided slant on the court, one way or the other.
