This is what happens to your stock when someone sends a fake email saying the CEO has resigned

Here's something you don't see everyday.

On Friday, shares of Italy's second-largest bank Intesa Sanpaolo spiked lower abruptly after an email was sent around that said the company's CEO was stepping down.

Except this was a hoax.

According to Bloomberg News, the fake email sent around was, "linked to a site registered on April 2 through a hosting company in South Africa."

"The mobile phone number listed for the individual named as the registrant for the domain doesn't exist," Bloomberg added.

For a brief moment, however, this had the market fooled and shares of the bank plunged before coming right back.

This is not the first time a major Italian bank has been targeted as part of a fake communication. Bloomberg notes that back in November, Monte dei Paschi, the world's oldest bank and Italy's third-largest, was the target of a similar statement that purportedly reported an offer to invest in the bank.

Here's the wild chart of Intesa shares, which ended up finishing the day up 1%.

fake email wide

(Google Finance)

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