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Kroger Co. said a press release announcing plans to begin accepting Bitcoin Cash was fraudulent, marking the latest apparent scam tying a major retailer to 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. The information was reported by several major media outlets, including Bloomberg News, and Bitcoin Cash briefly spiked about 5%.
“This communication was fraudulent and is unfounded and should be disregarded,” Kroger said.
The episode recalled a similar scam less than two months ago involving Walmart Inc. In that situation, a fake statement went out on a separate wire service, GlobeNewswire, saying the retail giant had partnered with the cryptocurrency Litecoin. The fake news release set off a short-lived surge of more than 30% in Litecoin before Walmart said the information was false and the statement was taken down.
A PRNewswire representative didn’t immediately return a request for comment about the Kroger statement.
The situation shows how fake statements remain a risk for newswire operators, which put out the information that helps to dictate the daily flow of U.S. financial markets.
While fabricated releases aren’t new, cryptocurrencies would seem to provide fertile ground for deception. Unlike in stocks, trading is mostly untraceable, so scammers leave few tracks. And traders have become conditioned to expect outsize price reactions to even flimsy announcements.
Kroger fell 0.4% to $43.26 at 9:42 a.m. in New York. Bitcoin Cash rose 1.4%. Bitcoin Cash is an offshoot of Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency.
— With assistance by Matthew Townsend, and Dave Liedtka
