Walmart's Many Woes With Fraud Issues

Walmart has certainly been making their share of headlines in the fraud world lately. Just today, the good folks at Websense reported a phishing attack using their name. As reported in the alert from Websense:

"Websense Security Labs has received reports of a new phishing attack that targets customers of Wal-Mart. Users receive an email message, written in HTML, claiming that their Wal-Mart logon account has been compromised. The message reminds users that the terms and conditions of their account require that it be under control at all times. The email message also states that the parties connected to the account have been involved in money laundering activities, illegal drugs, and various Federal Title 18 violations.

When users click the link within the email, they are directed to a fraudulent website, which is hosted in the United States and was up at the time of this alert. The fraudulent site first requests the users' logon ID for http://www.walmart.com/ and then requests their credit card information and other personal identity specifics.

This site has hosted phishing attacks for other targets in the past. As you can see, this message was mistakenly titled "Bank of the West."

As Christmas nears we expect further ecommerce-related fraudulent activity."

To view the full alert, along with screen shots go to: WSLabs, Phishing Alert: Wal-Mart.

Recently, a credit card breach was traced to the gas stations at Sam's Club, which is owned by Walmart. Here is the story as reported by Syracruse's own NewsChannel 9 WSYR - Sam's Club Credit Card Breach.

Here is a story by the Tampa Tribune about some who had a less than pleasant check cashing experience with them: Wal-Mart Accused Of Racism.

Of course, Fraud, Phishing and Financial Misdeeds ran this post about counterfeit Travelers Express Money Orders: Counterfeit (MoneyGram) Travelers Express Money Orders. Another woe for Walmart, as many of the counterfeit items bear their logo.

Walmart is the largest retailer in the world and because of this they are probably targeted by the fraudster community. For this, I feel sorry for them; however in the case of them being accused of racism, the actions of their employees bear scrutiny. Investigative actions need to be based upon facts and not determined by the way someone looks.

Perhaps, there is something to be said about Karma.