Not only do you have the wrong IMPACT, but you also likely have a scam on your hands.

We have received dozens of emails from people inquiring about a program that purportedly offers “$480 twice weekly” to monitor Walmart employees for how they interact with customers.

The various offers are sent by different “representatives” of a company purportedly named Impact Marketing LLC, which of course is very similar to our name, IMPACT Marketing & Public Relations, LLC. Although there are lots of companies out there with similar names, none appear to offer this service, and none have employees matching the names of the “senders” of these emails.

When savvy recipients of these emails try to find further information and Google the company, they end up on our website (because we’re so good at search engine optimization 😊) and send us a message. Then we dutifully respond and tell them it ain’t us and is likely a scam.

Below is the text – chock full of grammar and spelling errors – of one of the emails:

We are conducting assessment on workers and you can get work here. This work is to monitor how Walmart staffs attend to customers and we shall pay you $480 twice weekly, you will not pay money to be a member. To get training materials and begin work here: reply with your name, phone number, physical contact address, zip code and current occupation. Impact Marketing LLC, Patrick Biondo

Need help recognizing when an email may have questionable intent? There are some tell-tale signs of a scam, including, but not limited to:

• The “To” field in the email contains a ton of other recipients with names very similar to yours. In one example that someone forwarded to us, her name is Sandra and all the other recipients were also named Sandra – the email software is clearly pulling from a database and sending mass emails.
• The wording does not sound like American English. Look at the example above. We rarely say “we shall pay you” here in the states, and we know that “staff”, not “staffs”, is the plural of staff.
• No easy means of contacting the company making the offer (other than replying to their email) – no clear or simple web address, no phone number, no logo, etc.
• An email address that looks strange. In the case of the Walmart scam, we have seen variations on affnothe@inbestoild.onmicrosoft.com.
• The offer sounds too good to be true.
• It just doesn’t pass the “gut” check.

In the event that you notice any of these warning signs, don’t respond to the email and definitely don’t click on any embedded links, even if the link appears legitimate. It is very easy for scammers to make links, emails and even full websites that mimic a well-known company. If in doubt, it is always safest to contact the soliciting company directly to find out if the request is one that they originated. Remember, legitimate companies are not going to make unrealistic promises or ask for personal or sensitive information by email or phone.