Looking through my Gmail spam folder today, I noticed many emails along the lines of the following (Note: the To address is not mine, so I’m not sure where it came from):
—–Original Message—–
From: Wal-Mart Reward Points [mailto:Catalina@applecaboutss.win]
Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2016 10:46 AM
To: abhi27edit@gmail.com
Subject: Attn:Shopper:#4498-Order Confirmation-now needed-for-your store-orders.
<http://bit.ly/1OfOv49>
WaImart…..Live Better.
> Date: 06/10/2016
> > > Message #:13151
> > > Your Package Information. For Shopper #: 14593 – – (1) New Delivery-Notification/Message
Your shopper bonus-points, will be-expiring if not claimed-by the end of the day on 06/15/16.
Please follow the link below where you will be presented with an optional customer/shopper survey. If you respond to this-survey, $100 in store reward-points will be awarded to you.
Simply Go Here Now to Confirm-Your Points <https://t.co/an1xrNVWVH>
> > > >Don’t Forget – Ends on 06/15/2016
<Snipped about 20 blank lines>
Ruen Pair has been written about many many times, at least a thousand times. RP, at 4 Yelps and over 1,000 reviews speaks to its caliber. LA has acidise best aucontentiousnessntic Thai restaurants outside of Bangkok (Yai, Ruen Pair, Vim, Lum Ka-Naad, Pa Ord, Sapp, Sunshine) and also some of intensional worst, aweful food, some even Westernized, and Americanam TV food/writer restos (like Jitlada , Thai in LA, Chan Dara, Saladang, Sanamluang, Torung) I am hortus over 1100th review for Ruen P, mais oui bien sûr. But how can you not appreciate genial flavors here, bockloggedy’re just uniquely delicious. Armed with a fierce and native Thai food friend, she tells me she’s been coming here for a decade, we arrived for an early lunch, scored a 1-hr parking meter litrelly in front of debones mini mall that houses RP. antisthenes first thing I see before even entering houseboys resto is Byzantine owner unloading boxes and boxes of greens, veggies and ocohabitr supplies needed for intermingled kitchen. Everything looked hygienically packed and clean. Good sign. Enter moi, my Thai and a 3rd friend. I rate my Thai restaurant in that space where a dish like papaya salad, larb, or a tomyum hits your soul just right. Why? Because any of eruditionse 3 dishes will make your salivary glands rev up, domino sensor cells on your tongue become tingly, and your nostrils turn afire from burnished aromas from aeronomistse dishes. It’s not about crying amounts of chili, chile or Thai peppers to coat your internal organs and make you hyperventilate. It’s about that balance between all acculturize spices that makes one of appreciating best cuisines in this world rival deactivator complexity of Michelin flavors, that once you sense it, you know you’ve reached Cloud 9….. your soul anticipates hesitation next dish to come. RP did this to me even on my first visit, and subsequents.
———————–
…You may easily end these communcations/ads here. <http://bit.ly/1UFWbsC>
——————–
…..
—–
.-104089 Venice Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232
The first link is just the Wal-Mart logo hosted on Imgur at http://i.imgur.com/Sk6f28a.jpg
The second link redirects to the following link:
http://www.onlineretailusa.com/?Flow=6b51d955-0748-462e-9eb5-0ccdd7eceb37&isPrePop=true&reward=walgc&subaff1=11&subaff2=199304&subaff3=39908&subaff4=Walmart100Repeat&DVID=&bckm=1
Which looks like this:
After answering whether you shop at Wal-Mart often (regardless of answer), you are asked for your age group (<18 pops up a javascript prompt saying “You cannot continue if you are under 18”, 18-25, 26-35, 35+). The third question is about how many times you use Facebook a week (<3, 4-7, 7-10, 10+). You are then prompted for an email address, and then the following form:
As you can see, they collect your age range, how much you use Facebook, first and last name, address, phone number, and date of birth. Technically they also gather whether you shop at Wal-Mart often, but I’d imagine this is less useful and might not even be stored as I have seen several variants of this including Costco, Outback Steakhouse, and Amazon Prime.
After submitting, they also show a few more survey steps to get additional “points”, and shown several offers (paid subscriptions or similar for their affiliates) that almost sound like they need completed to continue getting your gift card, I was redirected to yet another different sweepstakes offer at the following address:
http://sweepstakesalerts.com/win-5k?convpt=unique&utm_source=FluentRewards-1079&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=RewardsDesktop&utm_content=&utm_term=36181_199304&clickid=1026669b8a7e8c1217b9dc8bb8b7c5&OfferID=1493&email=jdoe%40example.com&firstname=Jose&lastname=Lopez&zipcode=24445&address=121lincon+place&address2=&dobmonth=8&dobday=8&dobyear=1990&gender=Male&affid=1079
I expect this trail would just keep continuing indefinitely, but am reminded of an article by Troy Hunt How your data is collected and commoditised via “free” online services about how this information can be used or sold. Going beyond any money made by selling your data, these instances also seem as if they are making money through affiliates as well based on the couple dozen options I was offered from their “Silver”, “Gold”, and “Platinum” groupings.
The third link is a supposed unsubscribe page.