Activists opposed to Royal Dutch Shell's plans to drill in the Alaska Arctic sent out a sham email under Shell's name Thursday in the latest act in a campaign aimed at embarrassing the oil giant.

The email, sent under Shell's name and in the form of a standard Shell announcement, said the company was thinking of suing activists over their campaign against the company.

It also had links to a sham Shell website that had veiled criticisms of Shell's plans for drilling in Alaska, and highlighted the age of the drilling rigs Shell has planned to use in Alaska.

"That's a fake," the real Shell's spokeswoman Kayla Macke said of the faux announcement.

She said there were no plans to sue the activists, who remained anonymous.

Earlier in the week the activists put online a video purporting to be a Shell event at the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington state, celebrating the launch of its drilling rigs for the Arctic.

The video, which showed the launch going wrong, fooled some media groups before Shell denied it was real.

"Shell did not host, nor participate in an event at the Space Needle and the video does not involve Shell or any of its employees. We continue to focus on a safe exploration season in 2012," the company said in a statement.

Shell did introduce its new drilling rigs for the Arctic to top Alaska politicians in an event in Seattle last weekend, according to the Houston Chronicle.

The company is slated to begin drilling during the summer season at midyear in the Beaufort Sea region, where environmentalists worry an oil spill could have devastating effects on the pristine Arctic environment.