The tweet quickly garnered more than 3,000 retweets and 13,000 likes, sparking a social media frenzy as many rushed to praise Ford, while others defended the first lady. By Tuesday morning, Ford’s name was one of the top trending topics on Twitter.

But there was one problem: Ford never said those words.

“This is an absolutely fabricated and completely fake quote that somehow went viral,” a spokeswoman for Ford tweeted Tuesday afternoon. “Mr. Ford did not make this statement; it is completely false.”

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The account that originally shared the tweet, which boasts a following of more than 16,500, removed the post and later tweeted, “My sincere apologies for the Tom Ford post I posted.” The owner of the account and a spokesman for Melania Trump did not respond to requests for comment late Tuesday.

The speed with which the made-up quote went viral and the vast number of people who believed it to be authentic, even though the original tweet lacked any credible sourcing, is just the latest testament of the Internet’s ability to fuel the proliferation of hoaxes and falsehoods.

Like other viral shams, the origin of the fake Ford quote remains murky. On Tuesday, several Twitter users, including the account that first posted the quote, shared a doctored image of a Daily Mail article from 2016 in which the report’s original headline was replaced with the sensational statement. Chris Spargo, the Daily Mail reporter who wrote the real story, retweeted a user pointing out that the image was edited, adding, “THANKS YOU.”

While the quote itself is not true, Ford did make headlines in December 2016, when he became yet another figure in the fashion industry to distance himself from the Trumps, The Washington Post’s Emily Heil reported at the time. His reasoning, however, lacked any mention of escorts, speech-stealing or the first lady’s taste in men.

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“She’s not necessarily my image,” Ford said during a 2016 appearance on “The View.” The designer noted that he had been asked to dress her “quite a few years ago” and declined then as well.

Ford went on to explain that even though he was a Democrat who voted for Hillary Clinton, he likely would not have dressed the former secretary of state had she won. His clothes are “too expensive” for women who want “to relate to everybody,” he said. The brand’s gowns can run anywhere from about $2,000 to more than $58,000.

When it was brought up that Michelle Obama had worn one of his creations to Buckingham Palace to meet Queen Elizabeth II, Ford said he had dressed the former first lady only once.

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"I thought it was appropriate,” he said, given the event and because he was living in London at the time.

Shortly after he went on “The View,” Ford clarified his stance on Melania in an interview with Elle at the Golden Globes in January 2017.

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“Given this President’s beliefs about ‘made in America’ — I think the clothes they wear should be made in America,” he said. “I think that whoever is the President, or the First Lady, should be wearing clothes at a price point that are accessible to most Americans, and wearing clothes made in America. My clothes are made in Italy, they’re very, very expensive. I don’t think most women or men in our country can relate to that, and I think the First Lady or the President should represent all people.”

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Though Ford told Elle that he was not biased against Melania, his comments still drew a rebuke from then-president-elect Donald Trump, who told Fox News days before his inauguration that his wife had “never asked” Ford to dress her.

“Doesn’t like Tom Ford,” the president said about Melania. “Doesn’t like his designs.”

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He later added: “I’m not a fan of Tom Ford, never have been.”

The amount of activity Monday’s tweet generated also serves as an example of how difficult it is to stop the spread of fictitious information once it gets out. By the time the original tweet was deleted, social media users had already pounced on the quote and started posting their own versions of it. One tweet had nearly 15,000 likes as of early Wednesday. Another sharing a photo of the original post was also liked by thousands.

People declared their love for the designer and proudly announced they would support his brand.

Others slammed Ford over the fabricated statement, which one user called “disrespectful and sexist.” The praise he received was also criticized for being an example of the left’s double standard.

But amid the flurry of reactions, a number of people attempted to set the record straight, sharing video of Ford’s 2016 appearance on “The View” and debunking the unsourced quote.

“This online convo about Tom Ford is a reminder that a person can say something on TV in a land where Google is free, and folks will STILL misquote them and just run with it,” one person tweeted.

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According to a 2018 study on the spread of false news published in the peer-reviewed journal Science magazine, there’s a reason it has a habit of going viral.

“Lies spread faster than truth,” researchers wrote, noting that the effects are especially pronounced when it comes to “false political news.”

The study found that “false news was more novel than true news,” which suggested that people were more inclined to share unusual information. Researchers also said their findings showed that “contrary to conventional wisdom,” people, not bots, were more likely to promote fake stories.

In an interview with Women’s Wear Daily on Tuesday, Ford said anyone looking for the quote was “never going to find it because I never said it.”

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“I’ve never said anything derogatory about Melania,” he said. “I never would say anything derogatory. It’s so weird, isn’t it, in today’s world the way someone out of nowhere can just make up a random quote and start circulating it on the Internet?”

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Still, even after the quote was confirmed to be fake, some appeared not to care.

“Oh I just found out this was fake news,” one person who had shared the quote tweeted. “But it’s still funny.”