Fake press releases are not uncommon. There have been many instances, for example, of bogus text dressed up to look like a real press release and then hopefully pasted by fraudsters onto internet message boards with the hopes of sparking trading in the underlying security.
True “hoax” press releases that are able to bypass wire service security measures and actually go out over the wire services are much less common, however. Oddly, there have been two new hoax press releases in the past week alone. Full details are available in this post on my Enforcement Action blog over at Compliance Week.