LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – Carlos Santana is not dead. Carlos Santana fake death reports are surfacing tonight after a domino effect started earlier this morning. Usually fake celebrity death reports are the result of a deliberate act by a user to trick fans into believing the celebrity has died. But today’s Carlos Santana fake death report is unlike anything dominating news recently.

Shortly before sunrise today, the death of Muammar Gaddafi was announced by international news. By early morning, images of Gaddafi dominated U.S. websites. In the hours that passed, some Twitter user began to claim that former dictator, when alive, appeared to look like a particular singer. By this evening, the references between Muammar Gaddafi and Carlos Santana snowballed. Now tonight, many fans are completely confused if Santana really die.  He did not.

A quick perusal of Twitter activity this evening shows there is roughly ten comments per minute featuring claims that the dictator and the musician looked similar. Therein began the domino effect. What began as a reference that the two people look alike has now confused Santana fans into now believing that Santana has died, not the Gaddafi.

Fake Carlos Santana Death Pictures
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And the problem is even growing. Some people are now posting pictures that Santana has died. In one picture, a photo of Gaddafi is used and the text on the photo says “RIP Carlos Santana”.

Some fans are furious, others are confused, and many aren’t sure what is going on tonight. “Carlos Santana is not dead. In case you see the picture of a murdered Gaddafi and it says it is Carlos Santana. It’s not Carlos Santana” wrote one fan moments ago.

Even Latin American fans are picking up on the confusion tonight. One wrote moments ago “Hace poco algunos entrevistados en una prueba confundían a Gadaffi con Carlos Santana. (Recently, some people are confusing Gadaffi with Carlos Santana.)”

Many fans are not finding the reference humorous, whatsoever. “Um, this whole Carlos-Santana-Is-Dead thing better be a freaking joke. I’m not kidding.” By 6 PM PST, however, the confusion is making many fans irate. The image at the core of the confusion is a photo of Gaddafi with the text overlaid “RIP Carlos Santana, 1947-2011″.

Celebrity death reports rarely take this form. Usually,  the culprit is a website, posting a fake plane, train, or car crash story. The location is usually a distant land, or a mythical freeway. And the victim is either a rapper, actor, or tv personality.

Moreover, the last time anything like today’s confusion erupted was a fake Beyonce death report earlier this year. At the time, someone tried to confuse fans into believing that Beyonce was dead. How did they do it? They took her image, put a news channel’s logo over Beyonce’s photo, and posted that on Twitpic.

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Santana is not dead. In fact, he got married earlier this year. In January of this year, Carlos Santana married Cindy Blackman. In a statement to news in July 2010, Santana said of their love “Cindy and I are blessed to have found each other. Being in love is a gift from the universe, and the spirit and vibrations that come with it are infinitely powerful.” He added “I look forward to expressing that incredible energy through my music, and in helping to tip the balance toward more love in the world with what Cindy and I share.”