Cleanup in aisle four: Kroger calls press release bogus | Crypto News

[ad_1]

The grocer said a press release announcing his intention to start accepting Bitcoin Cash was fraudulent.

By Richard Clough and Brendan CaseBloomberg

Kroger Co. said a press release announcing its intention to start accepting Bitcoin Cash was fraudulent, marking the latest apparent scam linking a major retailer to the cryptocurrency.

The statement appeared early Friday on PRNewswire, a service used by many large companies to make official announcements. Kroger’s investor relations website automatically picked up the release, the grocer said. Media organizations including Bloomberg News released the information and Bitcoin Cash briefly rose about 5%.

“This communication was fraudulent and unfounded and should be ignored,” Kroger said.

The episode recalled a similar scam less than two months ago involving Walmart Inc. In this situation, a false statement was posted on a separate communications service, GlobeNewswire, indicating that the retail giant would begin to accept. Litecoin cryptocurrency. The fake press release triggered a fleeting increase of more than 30% in Litecoin before Walmart declared the information to be false and the statement was withdrawn.

A PRNewswire representative did not immediately return a request for comment on Kroger’s statement.

While the fabricated versions are not new, cryptocurrencies appear to be fertile ground for deception. Unlike stocks, most trade is nowhere to be found, so scammers leave little behind. And traders have become conditioned to expect inflated price reactions to even flimsy announcements.

Kroger fell 1.9% to $ 42.59 at 10:43 a.m. in New York City, the biggest drop in the S&P Index of U.S. consumer staples. Bitcoin Cash rose less than 1%. Bitcoin Cash is an offshoot of Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency.

[ad_2]