|
The fake press release touting the acceptance
of litecoin as online payment by the world's largest retailer
led to a sudden spike in its prices, but the gains faded quickly
after Walmart issued a statement saying the press release was
fraudulent.
"Walmart had no knowledge of the press release issued by
GlobeNewswire and there is no truth to it. Walmart has no
relationship with litecoin," a company spokesperson told
Reuters.
GlobeNewswire published a notice to "disregard" the news release
and said it had put in place enhanced authentication steps to
prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future.
"We will work with the appropriate authorities to request – and
facilitate – a full investigation, including into any criminal
activity associated with this matter," GlobeNewswire said in an
emailed statement.
Separately, the Litecoin Foundation said in a Twitter post it
had no information on where the news release had originated.
The foundation is a non-profit organization that promotes the
cryptocurrency and is run by litecoin creator Charlie Lee, who
told Reuters in an email that the hoax was being investigated
but little headway had been made.
Lee also said he currently owned only five litecoins and had
little incentive to issue the fake announcement himself.
Referring to a now deleted post by litecoin's verified Twitter
handle sharing the fake announcement, Lee said: "It was our
mistake for retweeting using @litecoin."
"We will make sure to have stricter controls on our social media
accounts so that something like this doesn't happen again."
Reuters and other news outlets had reported on the partnership.
Reuters withdrew its initial story.
(Reporting by Uday Sampath and Praveen Paramasivam in Bengaluru;
Editing by Arun Koyyur and Anil D'Silva)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
