Categories: OLD Media Moves

Another fake company release — this one is reported to the FBI

A fake news release about Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc. that was posted on Business Wire Friday night has been reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, report Anjali Cordeiro and Nat Worden of Dow Jones Newswires.

Cordeiro and Worden write, “Business Wire received the hoax release from an unknown third party purporting to be an authorized representative of the company, Javelin’s statement said. Dow Jones Newswires, Bloomberg and ThomsonReuters did not publish the hoax release.

“News Corp. owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of this newswire, and The Wall Street Journal.

“In a similar hoax last Wednesday, a fake release about cereal maker General Mills falsely stated U.S. President Barack Obama had ordered an investigation into the cereal maker’s supply chain. General Mills said last week that “law enforcement” is involved in investigating the false press release but didn’t comment further on the investigation Monday.

“There has been no official disclosure either from law enforcement agencies or the companies about who may have put out the releases or if they are connected. The phone numbers at the bottom of both hoax releases were the same and had a New Zealand dialing code.”