Last week a fake press release supposedly from Javelin Pharmaceuticals hit the news wires with the headline "US Supreme Court split - rules in favor of Big Pharma." The release was sent via Business Wire June 18 and is now being treated as a case of stolen identity and as a criminal investigation.
"In the wake of a fraudulent press release that is now the subject of a Federal criminal investigation, Business Wire will no longer accept client releases submitted via e-mail, effective immediately," said Cathy Baron Tamraz, chief executive officer of Business Wire.
According to Business Wire the elimination of e-mail submissions was planned to be part of a security initiative in August, but this incident has prompted the company to speed up the timetable for the changes.
All press releases will now be submitted to "BW connect", Business Wire's proprietary order-entry system, which is audited on an annual basis by leading independent network security specialists according to a press release from Business Wire.
This fraudulent release came after one was sent from PRNewswire last week targeting General Mills. The fake headline reads "Obama Orders Full Investigation of General Mills Supply Chain Following Food Recalls."
I found this incident to be rather interesting. First I thought to myself "who would actually send out fake press release and with what purpose?" I'm still filtering through the reasons in my mind, but I hope that the changes being made will stop this problem.
I feel there is already a distrust between journalists and PR practitioners. If they can't even trust that a press release is accurate or true, it could hurt the industry altogether. I doubt that a few fake press releases would do this, but if it continues, who knows.
This also devalues the trust between major news wire companies and those in the PR field. It will be interesting to see if something like this happens again.
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