Many scam emails are designed to look like a legitimate company in order to trick people into clicking links, downloading programs, providing account info and more. Some emails are more deceiving than others. The key is to look closely at an email because there are normal signs that reveal the email is from a scammer. We just took a close look at the E-ZPass email scam in a past blog post, today we’ll look at a scam email that appears to come from Walmart.

Look at the subject line and sender

The best approach to scanning an email: start from the top down. The first thing that you see is the subject line and the sender. In this particular case, the subject line does not seem suspicious. It simply reads, “Walmart Reward.” However, I know for a fact that I have never provided Walmart with my email address. The first sign that this may be an email scam. The apparent sender, Walmart, has never received my email; which leads to the question, how was my email obtained? If I did not provide it to Walmart, it probably is a scam.

Look at the actual email address 

Though the sender’s name looks authentic, look at the actual address the email was sent from. Look specifically at the text after the @ symbol. In this email scam the sending address is “walmart@humatel.com.” The domain ‘humatel’ is suspicious because if the email was actually from Walmart, it would be from something like “rewards@walmart.com”

Inspect the formatting and syntax 

This can be challenging, especially if you scan-over emails quickly. However, if everything else about the email seems legitimate, then look at the body of the email. In this fake Walmart email, the formatting and syntax errors are obvious. First, the text in “Walmart” has 2 different fonts and looks nothing like the true Walmart logo.

Another strange element is the random characters in the email. What it boils down to, is the fact that a large and multi-billion dollar corporation like Walmart would not produce an email like this.

If you have been the victim of an email scam, you need to have your computer checked-out and it may need to be repaired.

For computer repair, support, Networks Unlimited offers remote support and also has computer shops in Montrose and Grand Junction call (970) 243-3311