Daily Mail fooled by fake Steve Jobs tweet on iPhone 4 recall

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.