Walmart says an “external bad actor” is responsible for “offensive and unacceptable” emails that were sent to multiple people.
In recent days, a number of people—including this tweeted example—received a “Welcome to Walmart” email despite not signing up for the retailer’s online services. As seen in this example, the person’s name was replaced with the n-word.
Seemingly, the person (or persons) responsible for these emails was able to create new Walmart accounts using other people’s email addresses. Then, the person (or persons) replaced the intended recipient’s name with a slur. The emails in question, notably, were sent from the “help@walmart.com” address.
Per CBS News, Walmart’s internal systems “were not breached.” Furthermore, the company managed to halt the sending of additional emails, though they have not made public the total number of emails that were sent by this “external bad actor” using unsuspecting people’s email addresses.
In a statement included in the CBS report on Tuesday, a Walmart spokesperson said the company was actively looking into ways of holding the person (or persons) responsible for this email push accountable.
“We discovered that an external bad actor created false Walmart accounts with obvious intent to offend our customers,” the spokesperson said. “We were shocked and appalled to see these offensive and unacceptable emails.”
Complex has reached out to a rep for Walmart for additional comment and will update this post accordingly.
Earlier this year, Walmart announced that it was donating more than $14 million to various charities as part of a five-year commitment to racial equity causes.
“Walmart has made a commitment to advancing racial equity, finding areas where we, as a company, can best contribute our resources and expertise to change society’s systems that perpetuate racism and discrimination,” Kirstie Sims, senior director of the Walmart.org Center for Racial Equity, said at the time.
