It doesn’t get much more embarrassing. The Daily Mail has been caught out by the notorious fake Steve Jobs Twitter account and reported a tweet that Apple’s new iPhone 4 might have to be recalled as the real thing. Ouch.

The @CEOSteveJobs tweeted: “We may have to recall the new iPhone. This, I did not expect”. The Mail ran on the story on its website under the headline “Apple boss Steve Jobs reveals iPhone 4 may be recalled”.

This is despite the account being clearly being marked as a fake. In the bio section on the Twitter page of @CEOSteveJobs the text says: “Of course this is a parody account”.

However, reporter Richard Ashmore clearly missed this as well as many of the other tweets on the account, which all point to it being a joke.  The most recent tweet has Jobs quoting ‘Star Wars’ (“I find your lack of faith disturbing”).

Another tweet (after the story had been published) reads: “Actually, the new iPhone has no problems. Apple just happens to be issuing a highly-recommended ‘software update’ soon.”

The recall story follows last week’s launch of the £500 iPhone 4 and the problems many new owners have encountered with reception when gripping the phone and having a hand over the antenna. Jobs is reported to have told customers in an email to “just avoid holding it in that way. All phones have sensitive areas”.

The embarrassing story has since been pulled from the Daily Mail’s website and Apple is likely to be furious with the paper in what has been a jittery week for the technology giant with its shares slipping.

Other tweets on the account read: “Be careful not to leave your #iPhone4 at the Genius Bar on the way out of the store. Gizmodo might pick it up” and “I heard the CEO of AT&T got married recently. The service was great but the reception was terrible”.