Well, looks like someone out there is trying the old e-mail phishing scam again. This time it looks like they are trying to pretend to be Walmart.com and attempting to scare people in making them think that they made a purchase. This is what the e-mail looks like:

From – Thu May 16 14:26:40 2013
X-UIDL: 1368709532.17838.pt01
X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
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Return-Path: Received: (fqmail 17837 invoked from network); 16 May 2013 13:05:32 -0000
Received: (qmail 15440 invoked from network); 16 May 2013 13:05:32 -0000
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DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=simple/simple;
d=walmart.com; i=help@walmart.com; q=dns/txt; s=IP;
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z=Date:=20Tue,=2030=20Apr=202013=2013:19:24=20-0700=20(PDT
)|Message-Id:=20<201304302019.r3UKJOLd022606@ndc-fulmaila
pp3.walmart.com>|To:=20tom@tomgivens.com|From:=20″Walmart
.com”=20|CC:=20|Subject:=20Thanks=20for
=20your=20Walmart.com=20Order=202677175-375050;
bh=Y5/lWjKcTaPNp8T8dOICiPv+PwPN9urNh/jRID58VAU=;
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M=;
Accreditor: Habeas
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Date: Thu, 16 May 2013 21:05:20 +0800
Message-Id: <705711808426.ICRFUIFS346176@ndc-fulmailapp4.walmart.com>
X-Authentication-Warning: ndc-fulmailapp5.walmart.com: batch set sender to orders@mail.wallmart.com using -f
From: Wallmart.com
Errors-To: eorderconfirm@mail.wallmart.com
Subject: Thanks for your Walmart.com Order 6036254-090423
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary=”–Boundary-49=_0B139ELD_PC76FKN4K”

Thanks for ordering from Walmart.com. We’re currently processing your order.
Items in your order selected for shipping

• You’ll receive another email, with tracking information, when your order ships.

• If you’re paying by credit card or Bill Me Later®, your account will not be charged until your order ships. If you see a pending charge on your account prior to your items shipping, this is an authorization hold to ensure the funds are available. All other forms of payment are charged at the time the order is placed.
Shipping Information
Ship to Home

Liam Wilson
2636 Burgess St
St Peters, DC 68025-3157
USA

Walmart.com Order Number: 6036254-090423
Ship to Home – Standard
Items Qty Arrival Date Price
Toshiba UN48EH8000 62″ 1080p 400Hz Class LED (3.7″ ultra-slim) 3D HDTV 1 Arrives by Tue., May 21
Eligible for Free Standard Shipping to Home. $898.00
Subtotal: $898.00
Shipping: Free
Tax: $62.86
See our Returns Policy or
contact Customer Service Walmart.com Total: $960.86
Order Summary
Order Date: 05/15/2013
Subtotal: $898.00
Shipping: Free
Tax: $62.86
Order Total: $960.86
Credit card: $960.86

Billing Information
Payment Method:
Credit card
If you have any questions, please refer to help.walmart.com or reply to this email and let us know how we can help.
Thanks,

Your Walmart.com Customer Service Team
www.walmart.com

This one is a little more apparent that it is illegitimate as they try to get you to go to a misspelled domain called “Wallmart.com” as opposed to “Walmart.com.” As usual, I’m sure someone out there may have fallen for it so be sure to just dump it in the trash.

This was something that I thought many people would know already but apparently people feel funny in doing it. Basically, we all know that you can save money by using a coupon on an item. At the same time, a lot of companies say if you find a lower price anywhere they will match it along with a percentage of the difference. What was funny to me was that a lot of people apparently feel that you can’t use both of these techniques at the same time even if it is applicable. Example, price matching and getting the cheapest price possible where they also knock off more due to the competitor being cheaper and then after using a coupon as well.

That’s how a lot of people get things like grocery items for free for example. I was even saying that many times people feel this is wrong because if you get something for too little in this fashion that it feels like you are stealing. If that is the case, just remember that many times things like these coupons are essentially paid advertisements for companies or say a loss leader where they are trying to use it as a way to get more customers. One way or another they need to advertise to get you to use the product.

Why the coupon would work in cases like this is because the business itself that is selling you the item will get reimbursed from the manufacturer of the product. So technically they don’t really lose anything. So don’t feel bad if you get a really good deal this way.

I saw an interesting message today where a person who was employed for a fairly large company started to criticize another in a pretty brutal way. Of course, he was saying how the opinions are his own and so he should be able to freely say what he wants. The public opinion of that though didn’t seem to agree with that notion as they simply labelled his comments as the company’s comments with reasons such as if they are willing to employ him then overall the company itself must have a similar mentality.

It seems like a no win in this scenario huh? Basically, you don’t really have much of a choice other than to keep your opinions to yourself if you know that it can in some way create animosity or burnt bridges between two businesses. I’m almost inclined to say the only time you can really say it’s your own opinion and not the company is if it deals with something of a fun nature such as your preference when it comes to the weather.

Nowadays a lot of people not only see employees as some kind of extra body to do work but at the same time as like some kind of ambassador for your business as well I think. With that in mind, you often to be on your best behavior even outside of your work/business time and remember that people will often see you as the company whether you like it or not.

Today I was reading various reports on how the average grocery bill here has gotten really high where on a average people pay about $415. This then brought up on how many people use price comparison sites to try and find the best deals. However, it was expressed that most people simply don’t have the time or patients to use these tools when it comes to their everyday needs.

I was kind of surprised by this as I personally find that I save so much time using price comparison tools. Even when it comes to groceries I would usually look at the price and ponder if I could find the item cheaper. Instead, I usually find that if you plan everything ahead of time and do your research with various sites as an example you can make it a lot cheaper and as well can pretty much go in and out of the store where you know exactly what to buy. Ultimately, that is time saved from having to visit multiple stores or say having to walk around the whole place to try and find the best deals.

People do it all the time for high ticketed items like a new TV, so why are things like your grocery needs any different? In some ways I think it goes back to the topic of many times where if it is a necessity we think that the price we pay is in a sense non negotiable. I find an easier way too is that if you think it is too much work to research it yourself there are usually a lot of different communities even online that you can visit where bargain hunters are fully willing to share the deals they find as well.

For example, I know one good practice that people use to save money is that they first look at the flyers that the stores put out. Afterwards, they specifically try and find coupons for those items in an effort to get the best deal as usually if the item is on sale then adding the coupon as well can often mean you are getting it for the cheapest as possible. Sometimes the coupon can even end up making it where you get the item for free too.

I think you will be presently surprised at how much you can save if you tried too even when it comes to your necessities like these.

I was reading this piece of news today that got me very interested from a business point of view. Essentially, I’m sure most people are aware that there are a ton of people who use sites such as Youtube to share funny videos or even to the point where some people have made a career out of it. As well, Youtube has a system and policy where companies and studios can request that its copyrighted material be taken off if it is being used without permission. A simple example would be someone uploading a full movie as is which is technically not legal. So like that rightfully the studio can request that the content be removed.

As you may be aware, many times when you visit Youtube there are ads that you see. Usually this is a result of the person who uploaded the video partnering up with Youtube to serve ads which of course means they generate revenue from it. As you can imagine, many people like say a music artist would say no way you are making money off of our work and so often videos get taken down as a result.

However, some companies have opted to do it another way. Instead of saying they are going to take down your uploaded content that has its copyrighted material in it, they will instead just stop you from being able to profit from it. So in this case, whereas normally the revenue of the ads on the video would go to the person that uploaded the video they will now go to the company who is claiming copyright to it.

In many ways it makes sense. However, what’s interesting in this scenario I thought is that when it comes to video games a lot of these video creators try to do things such as commentary over the game that they play in an effort to make it unique. As mentioned, some people make a very good living this way. For those wondering why anyone would even watch such a thing, in many ways I guess think of it like people who find it interesting to watch other people play poker.

Just for curiosity sake I decided to upload a video to find out exactly what it is like. I basically just recorded a gameplay clip from the game and then uploaded it. Sure enough, you are then told as seen here that the content in your video matches that of the owner:

As mentioned above, some companies opt to simply remove the video completely. Instead, as seen here the company wishes the video to remain but as a result you will have advertisements in your video which they will profit from:

So the debate here that I thought that was interesting is how many people expressed actions like these discourage your users to make more videos about your product which is in a sense free advertising through social media. It’s kind of a tricky subject in this case I thought. For example, like for myself I can see why you would want to be extremely harsh if it was a movie as in those cases once people say watch the movie then they have no real need to actually buy it which means a loss in revenue. In a scenario like this though I would think regardless of how many times you watch someone else playing a game, you still need to actually buy it to get the intended experience. So if anything it is like free advertisement to encourage people to buy your product.

The other issue I was thinking of is that enforcing restrictions like these creates a perception that people are doing their job for you in terms of marketing and advertising in a forceful way. It’s like saying instead of thanking one for being a user/fan while helping to spread the word of the product they decide that you must pay them for the right to do it.

While you can probably go on for hours debating about things like “fair use” and how you could get around stuff like this, it kind of brings up the question where if you run a business and was in this scenario would you just allow your fans to do things like commentary videos without restriction as you feel the word of mouth advertising is great? Or do you feel that it’s better that you somehow directly profit from it as in the end you feel you will make more money that way?