NEWTON-LE-WILLOWS, England (FNN) – Noted singer-songwriter Rick Astley was a victim today of an internet prank bearing his own name.
Astley, the Newton-le-Willows native who is best known for his late 1980s hits “Never Gonna Give You Up” and “Together Forever,” was surfing the internet at his Merseyside home this morning, and received an e-mail from a former classmate about investment ideas. The e-mail contained an apparent hyperlink to an investment house named “Golden Sax,” (sic), and when Astley clicked it, the link led to a YouTube video that was his official music video of his 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up.” An hour later, the same person sent Astley an e-mail proclaiming that he “has been Rickroll’d.”
Rickrolling is an internet gag that started in May 2007. The gag is almost always similar in the method that Astley himself was “Rickrolled,” in that acquaintances engage in bait-and-switch schemes that implore you to visit an internet site on some pretense. Variations of the meme have included parts or all of the “Never Gonna Give You Up” music video being inserted in the middle of another video or presentation.
It is estimated that 20 percent of all American adults, and 97 percent of those who Twitter, have either engaged in or have been a victim of a Rickroll.
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