USuncut fool Associated Press into reporting on GE paying back taxes

USuncut – sister to UKuncut – yesterday pulled off an audacious stunt by fooling the world’s biggest press agency.

The Associated Press mistakenly published a story on Wednesday about General Electric that was based on a fake press release.

It said that General Electric, responding to criticism over the amount of taxes it pays, would repay a $3.2 billion tax refund for 2010 to the Treasury Department.

The fake release, which was emailed to the AP, included a GE logo and a link to a website designed to look like GE’s website.

USuncut paired up with renowned spoofers – The Yes Men – for the hoax.

The story noted GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt saying: “we want the public to know that we’ve heard them, and that we know many Americans are going through tough times. GE will therefore give our 2010 tax refund back to the public and allow the public to decide how to spend it.”

TechPresident reports:

Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal notes that part of the scam involved setting up a website just one letter off from GE’s official PR hub — GENewsCenters.com, rather than GENewsCenter.com. Good thing they took such care, because these were clearly reporters with a real eye for detail.

Associated Press apologised for not fact-checking the story and withdrew it within hours.

USuncut is now planning more actions across the US this weekend.

The shares fell substantially when this was announced. It just shows how overvalued they might be that just $3 billion can be so influential.

I wonder if any of the people involved bought shares after the price dropped? If so they could be charged with fraud.