Sony Music is investigating the possibility that pranksters rather than hackers posted fake stories on its Irish website, a source close to the company said on Wednesday.

Sony Music Ireland's Japanese parent company has suffered several high-profile hacking attacks undermining confidence in the group after millions of customers' personal information were accessed.

In this incident in Ireland they are satisfied it wasn't hackers, a source close to the company told Reuters.

Fake news stories, including one that claimed members of a local Irish pop group were dead, were posted on www.sonymusic.ie on Tuesday.

The website is currently offline and the company declined to comment.

(Reporting by Carmel Crimmins; Editing by Erica Billingham)

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