G4S share price falls after fake website and trade update dupes investors

G4S – the firm that bungled the London Olympics Games security contract – suffered a sharp drop in its share price after a fake website purporting to be the beleaguered outfit claimed it had overstated its profits by £400m.

The troubled firm – whose reputation was already damaged after it agreed to hand back £108.9m plus tax to the British government after it was rumbled for massively overcharging the taxpayer on contracts to tag offenders – saw its shares plunge by 3.5% to 266p before making a slight recovery.

A fake press release was sent out in an email linked to the sham website, which claimed that G4S had been forced to restate its profits and that it had sacked its CFO Himanshu Raja.

The rogue site was spotted within an hour of going live and was quickly taken down.

G4S said in a statement: “We have been made aware of a fraudulent web site and press release purporting to be from G4S. The website and the announcement contain wholly inaccurate information.”