Watch out for Walmart gift card scams

According to Malwarebytes, Walmart gift card scams lure you with a bright, urgent message claiming you’ve qualified for a $750 or $1000 gift card, inviting you to answer a few questions. The so‑called survey is actually a lead‑generation and affiliate marketing scheme designed to harvest your data and push you through ad funnels, rather than to reward you.

As you progress, you’re asked for details such as your name, email, phone number, ZIP code and even your home address, with occasional prompts to share interests like home repair or insurance quotes to aid targeted marketing. Even if the page itself doesn’t take money, the information you share can be sold or used to personalise follow‑up contact, feed more offers and place you on marketing lists for years.

The article notes these scams spread mainly through advertising and malvertising networks, including pop‑ups, spam emails, social media ads and sponsor links, and warns that the appearance of legitimacy can be a psychological trap. To stay safe, it suggests using browser protection tools such as Malwarebytes Browser Guard, checking that promotions come from official Walmart domains, and avoiding long questionnaires or unknown partner offers.