PolitiFact – Online scams use fabricated Walmart sexual discrimination ‘settlements’ as lure

A recent Facebook post follows a familiar script: dangling hundreds of dollars in Walmart store credit in exchange for answering a few simple questions. Too good to be true? Yes — don’t waste your time.

“Walmart faces big fine for discriminating women. WM managers are giving 35+ y/o women 500$ grocery credit as settlement,” the Jan. 17 post says. It was shared by a page called “for women only” that was created the same day. 

The post then directs people to “complete 3 questions” via a suspicious link with a url that includes the words “recipes” and “butter chicken.” 

It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.)

Randy Hargrove, a spokesperson for Walmart, told us there’s “no truth to what was posted.”

It’s similar to other posts we’ve debunked, such as one from October that the government was giving each household that completed three questions “500 $ WalMart shop credit.” Walmart advises customers to avoid buying, selling or checking a gift card balance “on online marketplaces outside of Walmart.com.” 

Similar Facebook posts are circulating online with the same lure: discrimination against women. Only this time, Lowe’s appears to be the offending company, and anyone who answers three questions and spends $2 will supposedly receive cookware sets “as settlement.” Like the Walmart post, these offers were shared on Facebook pages that were created the same day the posts were published.  

We reached out to Lowe’s about the claims but didn’t immediately hear back. But we found no news reports or credible sources to corroborate the claim that they’re settling discrimination allegations by giving women deeply discounted cookware.

There’s no evidence these offers are true.

We rate this post False.