Kroger Says Bitcoin Cash Release on Its Website Was Fraudulent

Richard Clough, Bloomberg News

Signage is displayed on a shopping cart at a Kroger Co. supermarket in Louisville. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg , Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) --

Kroger Co. said a press release announcing plans for the grocery chain to begin accepting Bitcoin Cash was fraudulent, marking the latest apparent scam tying a major retailer to cryptocurrency.

A Kroger representative confirmed to Bloomberg News that the company hadn’t issued the statement. The fraudulent document has been removed from the grocer’s website.

The release, which said all of Kroger’s stores would begin accepting Bitcoin Cash next month, appeared Friday morning on PRNewswire, a wire service used by many major companies to make official announcements. Kroger’s investor-relations website automatically picked up the statement, the company said. The statement was subsequently picked up by several major news organizations, including Bloomberg News.

Less than two months ago, another fake statement went out on a separate wire service, GlobeNewswire, saying that Walmart Inc. had partnered with the cryptocurrency Litecoin. Walmart subsequently said it wasn’t true and the statement was taken down.

A representative of PRNewswire didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

Kroger shares were down 0.4% in premarket trading at 8:25 a.m. in New York, after an earlier rise.