Fake invite for Apple event circulates

A fake invite today was sent out by a user in Germany. The hoax invite, which read and looked like a real Apple-sanctioned event, was sent to several Mac websites and touted a 'special event' with U2 lead Bono. The fake red invitation said "Please join Steve and Bono" for an "invitation-only event" at the Moscone Center West in San Francisco on March 1st at 10 am. The invite also offered the words "Together we can fight it." Several reports had speculated on a special red iPod from Apple to help Bono's fight against AIDS. "U2's Bono may partner with Apple on a new red iPod in the near future to help promote a new project to battle AIDS. The charity is designed to raise money to help finance the fight against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria in Africa, and hopes to convince the world's largest companies to release special red-branded products while offering a portion of the profits to the fund." [updated]

The invite came with the following headers:

Received-SPF: neutral (216.22.45.54 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of webmaster@felixbruns.de)
Received: (qmail 63576 invoked by uid 89); 15 Feb 2006 16:53:36 -0000
Delivered-To: xxxxxx@macnn.com
Received: (qmail 63346 invoked from network); 15 Feb 2006 16:53:13 -0000
Received: from s169.evanzo-server.de (62.67.235.169)
by macnn.com with SMTP; 15 Feb 2006 16:53:13 -0000
Received: (from wwwrun@localhost)
by s169.evanzo-server.de (8.11.3/8.11.3/SuSE Linux 8.11.1-0.5) id k1FGrDl09934;
Wed, 15 Feb 2006 17:53:13 +0100
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 17:53:13 +0100

Many websites that initially reported the event have since pulled their stories without any correction, retraction, or other note. (Editor's note: This article has been updated/corrected to reflect the true nature of the invite.)

Filed under: iPod