Experts Warn Netizens of Email Scams Impersonating Costco and Walmart

A holiday-themed scam email claims that the recipient's order from two well-known US retailers i.e. Costco and Walmart, was terminated due to incorrect address however clicking on the URL in the email leads to a malicious download that can taint the user's computer, are currently targeting Internauts, warn security experts, reported Thedenverchannel.com on December, 23, 2013.

The email looks official although a careful watch will detect that the logo of Costco Company is somewhat wrong and the icon inside the fake email is without the three parallel and flat blue lines next to the word "Wholesale".

The logo of Walmart is also incorrect as it doesn't possess the yellow star that generally comes into sight on the right of the company's name.

Another sign of doubt is that the email does not arrive from a Costco.com or Walmart.com address because enterprises possess their own domains and the bogus email arrives from a dissimilar address.

With the email, a link is concealed behind a false order number that instructs "Complete this form".

If a user gets tricked and attempts to make accurate his delivery details, a ZIP file gets downloaded.

Fortunately, Toby Benninghoff, a Walmart customer, did not get scammed. He got an email which looked like from Walmart saying his daughter's Christmas gift had the incorrect delivery address which he purchased online.

Fox28.com published news on 24th December, 2013 quoting Benninghoff as saying "I got an email saying that they're going to charge 17% and refund back the remaining money."

He was puzzled because just few days back he got an email from actual Walmart confirming that his order had passed the processing stage and out for been delivered along with a tracking number. However, Benninghoff spotted the scam immediately and says "The item number didn't match with my number of purchase order."

Helena (Montana,US) resident of Donna Sanders also encountered the scam email.

Beartoothnbc.com published a report on 24th December, 2013 quoting Helena as saying "the very first page looks like a legitimate email from Walmart but I got suspicious when it asked for personal information. I do not open things which I don't know but I mean everybody knows Walmart."

» SPAMfighter News - 12/31/2013