Walmart denied any association with Litecoin digital currency after a fake press release briefly sparked several national newspapers and social media users on Monday
NEW YORK – Walmart denied any association with Litecoin digital currency after a fake press release led to a brief barrage of inaccurate reports from national newspapers and social media users on Monday.
A press release stating a partnership between Walmart and Litecoin “is not real,” according to Walmart spokeswoman Molly Blakeman. Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin and managing director of the Litecoin Foundation, confirmed that the launch was fake.
The fake ad appeared temporarily in a major press release and at outlets such as Reuters, CNBC and Yahoo Finance, before it was deleted and corrected. It was not immediately known who created it.
The facts are detailed below.
CLAIM: Walmart on Monday announced a major partnership with Litecoin digital currency.
THE FACTS: The country’s largest retailer is not associated with Litecoin, although a false press release claimed, Blakeman told The Associated Press by telephone. Walmart added in a statement on its website that it “has no relationship with Litecoin.”
Lee, who created Litecoin, confirmed the launch was fake in an email to the AP. A Litecoin employee posted the false claim on Monday from the currency’s verified account after seeing the fake announcement on GlobeNewswire, a major distributor of press releases, Lee explained. The employee later realized his mistake and deleted the tweet, Lee said.
The statement announced the false headline “Walmart announces major collaboration with Litecoin”. He fabricated quotes from Walmart CEO and creator of Litecoin to falsely claim that Walmart would allow customers to pay with digital currency from October 1st.
After posting the release, Twitter users noted that Walmart had not announced the partnership on its own corporate website, nor did the launch contact email match the actual address of the company’s website.
While this announcement is false, Walmart is looking to hire an expert in digital and blockchain currencies, Blakeman said.
The fake statement briefly provoked national media, Twitter users and cryptocurrency buyers. Litecoin’s price jumped from about $ 175 early Monday to about $ 233 just seconds after the press release was released. The price dropped just as fast a few minutes later.
GlobeNewswire, which briefly presented the statement in its place before withdrawing it, is conducting an investigation into what happened, said Dave Pleiss, vice president of investors and public relations at Intrado, owner of the press release .
“This has never happened before and we have already established enhanced authentication steps to prevent this isolated incident from occurring in the future,” Pleiss said.
GlobeNewswire is an Associated Press client that distributes press releases to the AP client network.
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