Microsoft Store gives $100 to random emails: Beware the inevitable scam
Microsoft is sending thousands of people a gift card for their store via email starting this week. The company suggested that they'll be sending digital gift cards to random emails* over the next few weeks in order to "start your holiday shopping." It is important, at a time like this, to recognize the massive potential for chaos this will likely cause in the future.
Microsoft gift card email title
The Microsoft Store $100 gift card email title here in the holiday season of the year 2021 is simple. The email is titled "Here's $100 to start your holiday shopping." Microsoft suggested that these emails were sent randomly, but common sense would dictate a few parameters.
Microsoft does not have a list of every email in the world, so the randomness of their distribution is not absolutely truly random. Microsoft will almost certainly have chosen email addresses from those that they've had access their store or one of their products in the past. If you have an email associated with your Xbox, for your Microsoft account, that's the email Microsoft will likely target.
If you've ever gone in and blocked emails from Microsoft or requested that Microsoft stop sending emails for their products and services, there's little chance you'll get one of these $100 gift cards.
Malicious Potential
Now that Microsoft sent out an actual, real, legitimate $100 gift card via email, there'll be malicious actors aiming to take advantage. They'll likely send emails that look effectively identical to the one Microsoft has sent, with links that appear to go to the Microsoft Store.
These malicious emails that'll more than likely appear in your email app or service in the near future will likely be difficult to detect. It'll be a true test of the ways and means Microsoft's Outlook, Google's Gmail, and other services use to detect and deter scammers aplenty.
If you see an email in your inbox in the next few weeks that appears to be from Microsoft and/or the Microsoft Store, complete with a gift card, make absolutely sure it is from Microsoft. While there is no perfect way to do this, a good place to start is by looking at the email's sender's email address.
If the sender's email is from @microsoft.com, you're probably safe. The same goes for emails from windows.com. Just make sure there's nothing in the email address that's ever-so-slightly different from that. Do not trust an email like "admin@microsofts.com" or "store@windows1.com". Make sure you've had emails from the address this new email is coming from in the past. If you haven't, it's likely a scam. Be safe out there!