Success breeds hit sales and ... hoaxes? Figures released Wednesday showed that the Deftones' new
 'White Pony" was the the country's No. 3 album, but fans were simultaneously spooked when news of
 the Sacramento based band's demise spread across the Internet. 'Deftones calling it quits' read 
a headline at sonicnews.cjb.net, which appears to be a story from the Internet music site 
SonieNet.com. Sonicnetnews.cjb.net uses the same logo and page layout of Sonicnet, but an 
inspectrion of the story reveals that the band was on the receiving end of a clever hoax. In 
fact, the faux-Deftones article closely follows a real Sonicnet story that announced the breakup 
of the Smashing Pumpkins.

A quote from Sonicenets Samshing Pumpkins story reads "Theres nothing wrong inside the band," 
founder and singer-guitarist Billy Corgan said on Los Angeles radio Station KROQ-FM."
Similiarly the purported Deftones story reads: "There's something very wrong inside the 
band'founder and guitarist Stephen Carpenter said on Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM.'

Both stories use the quote 'I feel like a weight's been lifted off my shoulders." But fans who've
 been keeping close tabs on the Deftones' itinerary could quickly see through the holes in the
 article. The Deftones had recently given a radio interview with the New York station K-ROCK, not
 KROQ. Also, Web links on the Deftones storywere either broken or not directed to SonieNet's 
servers. Moreover, the Deftones story simply didn't show up in SonieNet's news archives. 

This wasnt the first hoax played on the band this year. An advance review of 'White Pony, said to
 have come from Rolling Stone magazine, was posted in May on the band's Internet bulletin board 
(www.deftones.com). The scathing 'review" awarded 'White Pony" one out of four stars, though the
 magazine's actual roundup gave the album three stars. The Deftones, once a band with modest 
sales and popularity, sold 177,000 copies of 'White Pony" during its first week in record stores.
 The band now joins such heavyweights as Eminem and Britney Spears on,the pop charts.

Hoaxes are common for bands once they enter the limelight, said Deftones'publicist Heidi 
Robinson, whose previous clients include Van Halen and Jane's Addiction. 'Once a band gets to a
 certain place of popularity, they become fair game for all kinds of things,' said Robinson. 'The
 Deftones have crossed a certain threshold and now people are making up all kinds of stories and 
rumors about the band. It's kind of cool in a way because it shows how much people are picking up
 on them.'