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Following heavy trading in the wake of a phony buyout announcement that set media outlets atwitter this weekend, WCI Communities shares were up 1.5 percent on Monday.

WCI Communities said Monday that a press release circulated to media outlets over the weekend announcing the company had received a buyout offer was “definitely a hoax.”

Vivien Hastings, senior vice-president and general counsel for the Bonita Springs-based homebuilder, confirmed that WCI did not send out the document.

Trading volume on Monday topped 3.1 million for WCI shares, compared with just under 600,000 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

Shares of WCI closed at $1.37 on Friday; stock price peaked at $1.77 mid-morning on Monday before winding down to $1.40 by the close of business.

The spike follows a 52-week low for the stock on July 8, when it hit $1.21 per share; share prices plummeted from last summer, when they reached a 52-week high of $14.40, as WCI acknowledged difficulties in meeting its debts following real estate market turbulence.

A copy of the hoax received via fax by the Daily News dated July 19 said WCI Communities CEO Jerry Starkey “today announced that (sic) has received a bid of $5.25 per share to WCI’s board of directors to purchase the company, a deal potentially worth $220 million.”

Hastings said that WCI had not received a copy of the fax, but was hoping to track the number from which it was sent to the media to discover its origin.

Some media outlets that reported on the supposed buyout have since pulled the stories from their Web sites.

The buyout hoax comes after WCI recently said it had ceased talks with billionaire investor and WCI chairman Carl Icahn about restructuring proposals.

Icahn owns about a 15 percent stake in the company.