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Lady Gaga fans spread #Shallowbucks scam (update)

A pretty shallow move.

Photo of Samira Sadeque

Samira Sadeque

gaga shallowbucks scam

Lady Gaga fans apparently aren’t satisfied with her just winning an Oscar for “Shallow” from A Star is Born, and it shows.

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A hoax hashtag, #Shallowbucks, has gone viral, asking users to tweet out a screenshot of them listening to “Shallow” for a free drink at Starbucks. There are tweets, and craftily doctored messages that appear to be from Starbucks with messages such as, “Thank you for streaming ‘Shallow’ by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper! Here is the link to the voucher for your free drink.”

Starbucks confirmed with the Daily Dot that the company has no association with this hashtag.

https://twitter.com/JuzdanProd/status/1101337597597622272

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The person who claims to have initiated the initiated the trend is reportedly a fan BuzzFeed identified only as Nico. He said he started the trend to make sure “Shallow” climbs the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it’s currently in the 21st spot.

“Well since rumors of ‘Shallow’ possibly going number one on Billboard started I knew I had to do something to help her out with sales and streams but I didn’t know just what to do at first,” he told BuzzFeed.

“Then one day when I was going home from school I passed by a Starbucks and got the idea last minute lol.”

Some apparently took the offer seriously and gave it a shot:

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Others boosted the fake offer online.

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https://twitter.com/AllyLewinksy/status/1101523726410137601

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But it soon spiraled into lots of confusion for Starbucks. The coffee company eventually responded to some of the tweets to confirm that the offer is not real.

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Nico’s dedication is apparently real, though. He shared a screenshot with BuzzFeed that shows different stages of a Starbucks offer poster being doctored, and by Saturday, was sharing tweets and GIFs about potentially going to prison for the scam.

Nico did not immediately responded to the Daily Dot’s request for comment. 

This post has been updated.

H/T BuzzFeed

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