A fake Twitter account tried, and briefly succeeded in, spreading the word that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had died.

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Thatcher, dubbed the "Iron Lady," remains alive, though.

Just after 3:30 p.m., a Twitter account called @OfficialSkyNews tweeted 10 times that Thatcher, 86, had passed away. However, that account has no official tie to Sky News, and the 10 tweets that the user sent out were the only ones affiliated with the account.

Shortly thereafter, the @OfficialSkyNews Twitter feed changed its username to "John Pennington," then "Dean Sutton." On the third change, the user protected his or her tweets.

The two official Sky News accounts, belonging to the English news agency, are @SkyNews and @skynewsbreak.

A short time later, the fake account in question tweeted twice, with a string of expletives, that Thatcher was, in fact, still alive, and provided a link to what appears to be an Internet radio show.

Thatcher's Wikipedia page was briefly changed to show that Aug. 14 was her date of death. It has since been corrected.