Steve Jobs health hoax hits Wired

It is a hoax, Wired reported Thursday -- an article that looks like a story on Wired.com and that claims Apple CEO Steve Jobs has had a heart attack.

"A widely-circulated URL which points to an image that purports to be a wired.com story about Steve Jobs health is a hack job," Wired.com said. "We won't provide the URL here but the Twitterverse quickly surmised that the item was not correct." It appears to have first been reported by Mashable.

Someone created a legitimate-looking Web page using Wired's public upload image viewer, which generates a page containing an image under a Wired logo banner, Wired.com said. The hole has been patched, the news site added.

While characteristics of the fake post--such as the Wired logo, byline, and accompanying related stories list--make it look legitimate, the post is plagued with misspellings and grammatical problems.

Rumors about Job's health have been a big deal for the last 12 months, including a fake news item in October about Jobs purportedly having a heart attack. That allegation was reported on CNN's iReport citizen journalism site and led to a drop in the price of Apple stock.

Jobs, who had surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2004, announced this month that he will take a medical leave of absence to treat a hormone imbalance.

Mashable got a screen shot of the fake Wired.com page with the Steve Jobs hoax report.

(Credit: Mashable)

[Orion Blastar]

Most likely someone wanted to manipulate Apple stock and buy it at "firesale" prices. Nothing does that quite like a rumor or fake news item that says their CEO had a heart attack.

Obviously they used an exploit, but are not smart enough in English or use English as a second language so they couldn't get the spelling and grammar correct. Usually the bad spelling and bad grammar are signs of a hoax, and most smart people pick it up right away as a hoax. But it works enough to spook the market and do a pump and dump of the stock in case the news was really true.

That is the problem with the stock market, it can easily be manipulated by hoaxes like those.

If they wanted to sell Apple stock they would fake a news item that said "sales are up XX%" or that Apple has a new Macintosh that has new technology that no other company has yet.

[tomws]

"...not smart enough in English or use English as a second language so they couldn't get the spelling and grammar correct. Usually the bad spelling and bad grammar are signs of a hoax..."

By that logic, MSNBC is the Tina Fey of journalism. :o

[sharmajunior]

Why doesn't Jobs do us all a favor and die already!

[ZetaZeta_]

Most likely it was Anonymous doing it for the lulz.

[xhable]

I blaim 4chan

[tjharman]

I think the bigger story is that people still read wired.

[George_Marenco]

Whoever did that....Get a life.

[websterphreaky]

WIRED is a bunch of Tards .... then again, so is the CNet writers.

But I'll patiently wait for the real Stevie Gods Heart Attack or Inoperable Cancer story .... and then have a party at my house. NO AppleTards invited.

[skillingssucks]

"...so is the CNet writers."

Yeah, you're a real Einstein alright.

[joevai52]

Obviously you're a real genius yourself. By the way, if you are reading articles and picking up information from cnet.com writers, whom you say is a bunch of tards, what does that make you? After all, you are being educated by said tards.

[sharmajunior]

If all of the writers at these sites are "Tards" then why do people like you keep coming back and reading their stories.

[rcarsey]

The spelling and grammatical errors only all realism to that wired.com story :)

[jasonaorr]

Misspellings and grammatical errors in a Wired article? That's not abnormal...

[UITD]

First of all, you dont "have" a cardiac arrest. Idiots.

[UITD]

I would hope the SEC investigates this as a potential stock manipulation scheme.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Hepatic cirrhosis is no "health hoax" ;)
Apple is one liver away from failure !

[myles taylor]

The only major thing that would change if Steve Jobs had to leave Apple permanently would be that the stock would dip significantly. Apple is not a one-man show.

Once again, you show your ignorance and the fact that you couldn't be objective to save your life.

Leo, a quick question.....what do you have against Apple? Just curious.

[myles taylor]

I'm curious; does Steve Jobs have a heart problem? It seems that there are constantly rumors about him having a heart attack. I didn't think he actually had a heart problem. Why don't these people come up with believable rumors?

[duggerdm]

Any company the size of Apple that has anyone employee that can't be replaced is doomed one way or another. It's always hard to understand how some people/companies can be so bright in some aspects of life/business - and so incredibly stupid in others. On the other hand if you use Apple Mail you can sort of understand this inherent and paradoxical characteristic in Apple.

[Harrison912]

I agree with those who see this as some sort of trick to manipulate the stock market. As a business owner myself, I wish Mr. Jobs all the best both health and business wise.

[CrashPad63]

Well we can only wait for the enevitable. Really though Jobs health is just another Apple story I really dont care to see. That media flim flam man is old, very old.

[AppleSuxLeo]

The Palm Pre has surely caused him a lot of distress. I`m sure he hates getting "out-Appled" by a lot of ex-Apple employees(Palm).
BTW , Palm just "poached" a top executive from HTC.