Scammers prompt Wal-Mart to tweak online price matching policy

Less than a week after Wal-Mart said it would match prices with online retailers in its stores, scammers found a way to cheat the system. Shoppers showed store cashiers a bogus online Amazon ad print out for PlayStation 4 for $90, regularly priced at $399. The store workers matched that $90 price from the fake ad until the perpetrators took to social media to brag about their cheat.

Wal-Mart has since clarified and has updated its price matching policy when it comes to online retailers. The previous ad-match program did not specify for online merchants. But the new changes are putting stricter guidelines on what Wal-Mart will accept. 

“Although (Wal-mart) is still committed to matching prices we’ve updated our policy to clarify that we will match prices from Walmart.com and 30 major online retailers, but we won’t honor prices from marketplace vendors, third-party sellers, auction sites or sites requiring memberships," the retailer noted in a media statement on Wednesday (Nov. 19).