Joyce Meyer appears in video to dispel rumors of her death

Christian writer Joyce Meyer released a video last Thursday to tell her followers that she is alive and well after rumors of her death spread online.

"I just wanted to let you know that there's been a rumor going around on the web that I died last Thursday, and that my body is now in the morgue getting ready for an autopsy. As you can see, that is totally not true, it is some kind of silly rumor put out to waste people's time," said Meyer in a Facebook video.

Meyer said her ministry received calls from concerned followers. She added that she will be in Cleveland next weekend for a conference.

The false report of Meyer's death appeared on a website called Updater24. It stated that Meyer took ill on Thursday evening and died shortly after arriving at the hospital.

"Several world-renowned ministers of God have turned on Twitter to express their shock for Joyce's demise," the report claimed.

The report cited a fictitious website called "Christians Post" as a source. Due to the similar name, the news website The Christian Post had to clarify that it never made such a report.

Snopes.com, a website dedicated to exposing false rumors, characterized Updater24 as a "previously unknown website of extremely dubious veracity."

The fact-checking website pointed out that Updater24 does not contain any disclaimer to indicate that its content is intended to be satirical but it noted that some of its articles follow the same pattern of other outlets that contain hoax news. One of its headline states, "BREAKING: Garden of Eden Discovered in Grenada."

Meyer made several social media posts unrelated to the false rumor of her death before she addressed it on Facebook. She recently asked Christians to support ministries in Haiti after the region was ravaged by hurricane Matthew last week.