The Daily Mail website been caught out by a fake Steve Jobs account on Twitter, writing a story claiming that the chief executive said the iPhone 4 would be recalled on the basis on a message from the clearly-marked parody account.

The "ceoSteveJobs" account on Twitter plainly says in its biography: "I don't care what you think of me. You care what I think of you. Of course this is a parody account."

But the Mail on Sunday appears to have overlooked this in picking up on a tweet at 0017 BST on Sunday in which the person writing the account said: "We may have to recall the new iPhone. This, I did not expect."

Had the account belonged to the real chief executive, there might have been the faint possibility of it being true: Apple has acknowledged problems with reception when the iPhone 4 is held in particular ways, notably from below – though its guidance to customers is simply not to hold it in ways which lose reception.

The tweet was thus quickly picked up by the Mail, which wrote a story that was published at about 11am on Sunday morning which said that: "The much-vaunted new iPhone 4 may be recalled, Apple boss Steve Jobs revealed last night. Posting a message on the social networking site Twitter, the tycoon said …" and quoted the tweet.

Although the story was taken down later in the day, it was picked up by a number of commentators, and was still being indexed on Google News late on Sunday night – though the URL that it led to did not resolve.

Google News showed the Daily Mail story hours after it had been taken down



The story is visible on a number of sites which syndicate Mail content.

The Twitter 'ceoSteveJobs' admits that it's fake.



Although Jobs does not – as far as anyone knows – use social networks such as Twitter or Facebook, he has in the past few months begun to respond to emails sent by customers or journalists. On the iPhone 4, he has already replied to at least one customer, suggesting: "Just avoid holding it that way." More recently, he is reported to have told another customer to "stay tuned" over the reception problems – perhaps implying that a forthcoming software update will try to improve the situation.