There were red faces and some ‘lolz’ up and down Harold High Street when it emerged that many readers had been taken in by one of our April fool stories – but did you spot it?
Residents awoke to a straight-faced article on the business pages of our off-line version that explained how Mexican regulators had given the go ahead for the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to take a ‘significant’ share of the local operations of Grupo Financiero Banorte, S.A.B. de C.V., (Banorte), one of the big four Mexican commercial banks.
But the joke was on them, because nothing of the sort had happened, and it appears many readers believed the story, answering “yes” when asked if they believed the story.
“I have to admit, I forgot to check the date, and was totally convinced that China’s largest bank by assets and market cap had staked a claim in a major Mexican bank. I mean it made a lot of sense, for a bank of that size to look for opportunities for growth, and diversification of its risk portfolio in a vibrant market like Mexico. But it turned out to be untrue, and I had been fooled,” commented local tramp, John Horse.
Those who saw through our ruse probably thought that was it for this year, but the story appearing on page 6 about a mass shooting in an Oregon shopping mall killing 16 was also made up to trick our readers, as was the report on Nicky Campbell’s arrest for a sickening sexual assault.
Did we catch you out this year? Or did you spot them all? Don’t worry, it’s just a bit of fun.
April fool, readers!
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