Feb 1, 2025
When reporter Nicholas Brooks got a mobile alert on his phone, he was surprised to see that it was a $528.04 charge to his bank account from Walmart. Brooks hadn't bought anything at Walmart, but he quickly noticed the pending charge when he navigated to his Walmart account.
Brooks, who works for WJAX-TV in Jacksonville, Florida, immediately called his bank to report the unauthorized charge and request a replacement debit card.
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Unfortunately, Brooks isn’t the only one who had this issue, but he made a few smart moves in response, including swiftly notifying his bank about the fraudulent charge. His best form of protection, though, was the mobile alert that immediately notified him of the problem.
Brooks' story serves as a cautionary tale on how to protect your accounts from hackers and scammers. Here's how it all went down, along with some tips on how to keep your bank accounts safe from fraudulent charges.
Walmart's technology causing problems for users
Walmart uses an app called Spark Driver to arrange deliveries for customers directly from the store. When customers place an online order, drivers working for Spark Driver are notified that a pending delivery request is available and can decide if they want to take the job.
Brooks wasn't the only Spark Driver user to experience problems, as several others — including a delivery driver named Sherry Medellin — said their Spark accounts had also been hacked.
As Medellin explained to Business Insider, she wasn't able to access her account after receiving a message that someone had logged into her account from a different device. When she called Spark’s customer support, the agent said several recent deliveries had been completed on her account, but Medellin didn’t make any of those deliveries.
"There's evidence of deliveries that I never took with Spark," Medellin shared with Business Insider.
BI’s investigation revealed that a number of Spark drivers posted in Facebook groups about having the same problem. The investigation even noted that the Spark service "struggled to keep unauthorized drivers off its platform."
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This revelation comes as Walmart faces legal action from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is reportedly suing Walmart and a financial tech company called Branch Messenger. The lawsuit alleges Walmart forced drivers to use “costly deposit accounts” to get paid and misled workers regarding same-day access to funds.
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How you can keep your accounts safe
If Walmart's apps are proving to be this vulnerable to hackers and scammers, you might just assume that any company you do business with may put you at risk. That's why it's important to be proactive in protecting your various accounts, as well as safeguarding access to your information.
“Scammers target retailers and banks of all sizes,” a spokesperson for Regions Bank — where Brooks has an account — shared with the U.S. Sun.
Eric Franklin, a cybersecurity expert with The Scarlett Group in Jacksonville, told The Sun that Brooks was smart to have account alerts set up. Those alerts immediately notified Brooks about the fraudulent charge, which allowed Brooks to quickly notify Regions Bank.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also recommends taking other steps to keep your accounts safe:
- Use automatically-generated passwords so that they’re less guessable and not consistent across multiple accounts.
- Set up two-factor authentication whenever it’s offered.
- Choose security questions carefully by avoiding those with limited answers (such as what your favorite color is) as they can be easy to guess.
- Avoid using information that could be easily found online, like your mother's maiden name.
Like Brooks, you should also notify your bank right away if you spot fraudulent charges. This will allow your bank to quickly halt further charges and/or reverse those that had already taken place. It also gives your bank a chance to issue you a new debit card and secure/lock your account to cut off access to scammers.
If you follow these steps when trouble arises and move quickly, you can maximize the chances of your money staying safely in your account where it belongs.
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Christy Bieber has 15 years of experience as a personal finance and legal writer. She has written for many publications including Forbes, Kilplinger, CNN, WSJ, Credit Karma, Insurify and more.
