Home Malware Programs Fake Warning Messages ‘$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner’ Fake Pop-up

‘$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner’ Fake Pop-up

Posted: January 24, 2012

Fake $1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner Screenshot 1The '$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner' fake pop-up is a fraudulent pop-up that's used to harvest e-mail addresses and lure victims into a variety of scams, including signing up for mass-mailed e-mail (AKA 'spam'). Although you may see the '$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner' fake pop-up on disreputable sites or sites that exercise poor control over their third-party advertisements, the '$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner' fake pop-up has also been noted to be a frequent symptom of infection by browser hijackers. SpywareRemove.com malware researchers recommend that you immediately scan your PC after noticing any side effects of a browser hijack such as redirects to unusual sites, strange error screens, links that are added to linkless text or, of course, pop-ups like the '$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner' fake pop-up. Under no circumstances should you try to participate in the '$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner' fake pop-up's offer, since this hoax doesn't have anything to give you except headaches.

Stacks of Fake Money in Exchange for Your Real Information

The '$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner' fake pop-up may be used as a lead-in for any number of other scams, but SpywareRemove.com malware researchers have noted that '$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner' fake pop-up is particularly associated with e-mail address theft. These addresses may then be bombarded with other hoaxes such as worms that are included in misleading file attachments or links that direct you to malicious sites. However, since the '$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner' fake pop-up is easily identified by its appearance, all you need to do to protect yourself from this e-mail-harvesting scam is to avoid any interaction with the '$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner' fake pop-up once it appears.

In terms of content, the '$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner' fake pop-up may tell you that you've 'already won' its gift card or that you only need to complete a short series of other offers to win this prize. However, there is no actual $1000 Walmart gift card waiting for you even if you jump through all of these hoops, and, in most cases, attempting to qualify will only give away your personal information and sign you up for other types of advertisements and scams. If you've already done this, it will be wise to consider changing your e-mail address, or, at the very least, taking extra care to identify spam e-mail that could harm your PC.

When the '$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner' fake pop-up isn't the Only Thing That's Wrong with Your PC

'$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner' fake pop-ups are often noted as side effects for browser hijack attacks, although SpywareRemove.com malware researchers note that the '$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner' fake pop-up will rarely be the sole pop-up hoax involved with such PC threats. Symptoms of a browser hijacker, including the occurrence of '$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner' fake pop-ups, are warning flags that your PC is infected. Representative issues that can accompany browser hijacks include:

  • Pop-ups like the '$1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner' fake pop-up that appear on websites that normally don't use pop-ups (such as Google or Yahoo).
  • Advertisement-based audio clips that may or may not be linked to the aforementioned pop-ups.
  • Strange warning messages that block your ability to load safe websites, particularly sites with anti-malware resources.
  • Redirects to unfamiliar websites; in most cases, these sites are actively hostile to your PC in one way or another (such as by using drive-by-download scripts), and SpywareRemove.com malware experts recommend that you shut down your browser after such an attack.


Fake $1000 Walmart Gift Card Winner Screenshot 2

One Comment

  • Shirley Stewart says:

    I Received an email saying" Congratulations At Shirley.Stewart68@yahoo.com #363997: Walmart amount$1,000 Street Address is this a Fake?

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