LONDON -- A report that thousands of Japanese residents had been "fleeced" into buying neatly-groomed lambs they thought were poodles was a hoax, an investigation has revealed.

The Sun newspaper of London orginated the story Thursday under a reporter byline. The Metro newspaper picked up the story, as did the Daily Express. The story was then repeated by the BBC and has since been reported internationally by newspapers and Web sites in the UK, America, New Zealand and South Africa. Even talk-show host Rush Limbaugh reported the story.

According to the reports, lambs were shipped from Great Britain and Australia to Japan by an Internet company advertising them as poodle puppies.

The Sun also reported that a Japanese actress suspected a scam after her "poodle" didn't bark and wouldn't eat dog food.

Actually, the actress appeared on a talk show and only said she had "heard" of a person who bought a poodle that turned out to be a lamb, the Web site Snopes.com reported Friday.

The newspapers said that authorities believe as many as 2,000 people in Japan had been conned. It turned out, the reporters were conned.