Sweden's Riksbank has repeatedly raised the idea of 'e-krona' or digital currency in recent years, but on Monday reiterated that a project launched in 2017 to look into the possibility of launching such a currency had not yet been completed.

Despite that, several potentially fraudulent claims have been made about e-krona, the bank warned.

“On certain websites and in social media, claims have been made that it is possible to purchase e-kronas,” the Riksbank said in a statement on Monday.

“The Riksbank has also been contacted by individuals describing how they have been called by companies claiming to be selling e-kronas on behalf of the Riksbank.”

It urged anyone who sees this kind of information or receives an offer to buy e-kronor to contact the bank.

The word e-krona was one of 33 selected by language experts as 2018's 'new words of the year', an annual list of terms that were either first coined, imported, or became particularly newsworthy in 2018.

In spring 2018, the Riksbank's governor said that e-krona was “around three to four years” in the future, and that the digital currency could replace large notes in the same way that notes have replaced small value coins in Sweden.

However, he stressed that any digital currency would not entirely replace physical cash if and when it is created.

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