Just last week, General Mills was affected by a fake press release issued on PRNewswire that said, “Obama Orders Full Investigation of General Mills Supply Chain Following Food Recalls.”

This past Friday, another fake release hit the wires from Business Wire, purporting to be from Javelin Pharmaceuticals, with the headline, “US Supreme Court split – rules in favor of Big Pharma.”

The release was issued after 11p.m. eastern time on Friday evening and was retracted at 7:45a.m. eastern time by Business Wire.

Business Wire SVP, marketing Thomas Becktold told PRNewser in a statement today:

On Friday evening, June 18, Business Wire transmitted a press release for Javelin Pharmaceuticals that we have since learned was fraudulent. The release was not issued or authorized by Javelin Pharmaceuticals. This is a case of stolen identity and is being treated as a criminal investigation

While overall they are a rare occurrence, the recent flow of fake press releases hit at one of the core value propositions the major wire services use when pitching themselves against cheaper or free competitors: trust.

The major services have large, in-house editorial teams who are in place to detect fake or fraudulent information.

UPDATE: After the jump, we’ve posted a release just issued from Business Wire, which states the company will no longer distribute press releases submitted by email.

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[The Clean Green Vermont Alliance's car of the future, debuted on April Fool's day]

Below is a selection of April Fool’s PR campaigns that dropped yesterday, including the launch of an entire clean energy campaign in Vermont, complete with a mascot-car that can continue to make appearances at State fairs, picnics and parades.

Chegg Inc., the “Netflix of texbooks” went with edible editions, and landed in the WSJ’s Venture Capital Dispatch, and TechCrunch’s massive Fool’s roundup. Chegg is a Porter Novelli client.

The very real U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association (LetsMow.com) went with a seemingly feasible Hall of Fame announcement. The Seattle Times put it at the top of their Sideline Chatter column. Founder and President Bruce “Mr. Mow it All” Kaufman sent this one along personally.

Though I don’t see any takers in the media, people might sign up for socially networked weddings from Wedded Marketing. The company morphed its name for a day from Webbed.

GreenFeet.com went with a variety of hoaxey enviro-products including biodegradable wedding rings that break down from anger and contempt, and PEU Sunless Tanner (elephant poop). They snagged a mention in TreeHugger and some nice tweets and Facebook action.

Leave it to the activists to go all out. The newly-launched The Clean Green Vermont Alliance put ads in the local papers, held a rally and parked a seriously jacked 1972 Pontiac Le Mans in the middle of Burlington to make a point about the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant of the same vintage. The stunt was supported by 72GoodAsNew.com, highlighting all the amazing technology of that time period. The Burlington Free-Press and a some local political blogs wrote it up.

Meanwhile, BusinessWire got in touch to say they weren’t accepting any tomfoolery and were on high alert. Their Senior VP of Marketing Thomas Becktold even sent along a statement (after the jump):

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