An incorrect blog post by Engadget earlier today caused Apple stock to fall 2.2 percent as investors rushed to sell their shares. Apple lost over $4 billion in value in just a few minutes.

The story centred around a hoax email which Engadget thought had been sent from Apple announcing that the iPhone had been delayed until October.

Here’s the story. A trustworthy source supplied us with an actual internal Apple email that went out to thousands of Apple employees earlier today (published after the break). The fact that this was an email sent within Apple’s internal email system to its employees is not in question. Let us reiterate: this was an ACTUAL email distributed within Apple’s internal email system to Apple employees.

As it turns out, the internal memo Apple employees received was actually retracted by Apple shortly after it was sent out. (Also published after the break.) We received confirmation from Apple PR that this initial email sent out to Apple employees was incorrect, and they let us know that the iPhone and Leopard are both still on track, and should meet their expected launch timeframes.

Presumably Apple is now on the hunt for whomever was able to spoof its internal email system.

Investors are not amused judging by the comments on Engadget’s post:

You guy’s suck! Validate before you publish! I just lost $127K in about 7 minutes because you clowns spooked the street and Apple’s stock got nailed because of your BS article. YOu F***ers are liable!

You shills should go to jail for this. You should be responsible and check with Apple before you run garbage like this. You are a cheap freaking rag and cost folks billions of dollars with either your criminal behavior or negligence.