Walmart said it will look into the false press release advertising a relationship with Litecoin, which temporarily boosted the altcoin’s price.
GlobeNewswire issued a press release on September 13 at 9:30 a.m. EST announcing cooperation between the world’s largest retailer and the modestly used cryptocurrency.
According to the news, Walmart will begin accepting Litecoin payments. Several reputable news sites, including Reuters, CNBC, and Bloomberg News, covered the story, causing the crypto currency’s price to surge.
Walmart refutes rumors
However, Walmart disputed the assertion within an hour, wiping out whatever gains the coin had made. Later, Litecoin verified that the statement was untrue. All parties concerned are now working to avoid making a similar error in the future.
For example, shortly after GlobeNewswire issued a warning to “disregard” the news release, it announced that it had implemented stronger authentication procedures to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future. “We will engage with the proper authorities to request – and facilitate – a comprehensive investigation, including any criminal behavior related to this matter,” GlobeNewswire stated.
Meanwhile, Charlie Lee, the head of the Litecoin Foundation and the developer of Litecoin, stated that the scam was being examined but that no progress had been achieved. Although the Litecoin Foundation stated that it had no knowledge of the origin of the press release, Lee admits that they “messed up” by retweeting the initial statement.
“We try pretty hard not to tweet fake news, and this time we really botched up,” Lee admitted. “I deny that it has anything to do with us, and we will do everything we can to figure out who did it — and we will halt the propagation of fake news.” He went on to say that the Litecoin team would tighten restrictions on its social media accounts “so that anything like this doesn’t happen again.”
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