American grocery store chain Kroger has denied that it is accepting cryptocurrency payments, saying that a press release that it is accepting bitcoin cash at its stores this holiday season is fake.
Kroger said that a press release stating it would accept Bitcoin Cash (BCH) at all of its stores, as well as for online purchases, was a hoax.
The company tweeted: “This morning a press release was fraudulently issued claiming to be The #Kroger Co. that falsely stated the organisation will begin to accept Bitcoin Cash. This communication was fraudulent and is unfounded and should be disregarded.”
The release appeared on Kroger’s investor relations page, and was later deleted. The company said the page, which gets automatically updated, receives a direct feed from PR Newswire, where the fake release also appeared.
PR Newswire issued an advisory to disregard the announcement. The popular news release distribution company did not give any details on how the fake statement was released on its service.
According to Reuters, Kroger is the second retailer to recently fall victim to such a scam.
Kroger has previously dabbled in the cryptocurrency space; in 2020, the firm began to offer Bitcoin (BTC) rewards at its store through crypto-based rewards platform Lolli.
Walmart was subject to a hoax in September when a fake press release was published, announcing a partnership between the retailer and litecoin. The news had briefly sent prices of the little-known cryptocurrency surging.
Crypto has gradually found its way into the grocery store vertical in various forms. In 2019, Safeway — another major American grocery chain — began offering Bitcoin rewards through Lolli, similar to Kroger.
