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On 8 November 2016 the web site TMZBreaking published an article claiming potentially fatal fake cigarettes were being sold in Detroit, urging readers to be wary of counterfeit packs: Although counterfeit cigarettes have reported as a known problem (primarily outside the United States), contemporaneous news stories don't report the products as being deadly. Nevertheless, the claim about lethal fake smokes was passed on by readers who (by design on the part of the site's operators) confused he reporting site, TMZBreaking, with the well-known gossip site TMZ. TMZBreaking, TMZWorldNews, TMZUncut and several similar fake news outlets use the sometimes salacious but usually accurate TMZ brand name to dupe readers into thinking articles are potentially credible. These impostor sites appropriated TMZ's name for the purpose of advancing fabricated claims, and none include a disclaimer warning readers their content consists solely of fake news. Earlier fabrications from TMZ-lookalike sites included claims a police officer shot a black baby after mistaking a pacifier for a gun, a penile implant alerted women to cheating husbands and boyfriends, a college student was left in a coma after participating in a social media semen-drinking challenge, many KKK members committed suicide after the Harriet Tubman $20 bill was introduced, a non-existent study demonstrated that 80 percent of black men in Atlanta were gay, and police found a satanic dungeon under a Chuck E. Cheese.
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