Long before Kakao’s blockchain-based platform Klaytn debuts, fraudsters are luring investors into buying counterfeit Klaytn coins.

South Korea’s largest public messenger service provider Kakao alerted the people against these fraudsters. It says it has no issued any Klaytn coins.

Many people say they received an offer to buy the bogus Kakao coin, called Klaytn, in the Kakao open chatting room. The unidentified seller said the Kakao’s blockchain platform Ground X has issued the coins.

A Block Media reporter approached the seller and asked how many Kakao coins she can buy. The seller said she could buy 500,000 coins, each of which is priced at 10 won. The seller also indicated additional coins would be available if she wanted to buy extra.

The fraudster said Kakao’s blockchain platform Ground X has issued the coins and Kakao sells these coins “privately.” Kakao said it had not made any initial coin offering.
Klaytn is a beta version, meaning that Kakao created Klaytn just for testing before a full main version comes out. This coin is not marketable.

Kakao plans to start its blockchain-based service next year. It has named nine partners specializing in gaming, sports, beauty, cooking, webtune, web fiction, health data, and crowdfunding.

Klaytn will test-run the programs before opening in the first quarter of next year. It will also continue to invite partners to make the service more appealing to the public.