I got a letter from Microsoft the other day, i opened and read it, it said they were suckers.
[Update: I actually did owe Microsoft some money. There is no scam, it is just Microsoft's odd way of submitting an invoice for their XBox Live subscriptions. So disregard what is below.]
Actually, this looks like a pretty good scam, just NOT from Microsoft. The way it seems to work is this: a bogus company named Microsoft Receivables sends out a realistic letter which claims you owe money, in my case for a MSN account. You either blindly pay or call to question and in doing so, confirm their address information and phone number for you, as well as give them a chance to rinse your wallet through some other sales pitch.
When I called, the young male operator picked up immediately, which should be suspicious for a company entitled “Microsoft Receivables” in this day and age of phone trees and holding patterns. He asked for my account number right away, which I told him I didn’t have, even though it was right in front of me. He quickly and suspiciously asked how I got that number. I said “Thanks” and hung up.
I’d give this scam a 0 for effectiveness, they blew some postage and got nada, but a 6 for creativity. The addresses don’t match which is bad, but the “Make checks payable to” says Microsoft, which is pretty realistic.
