Subscriptions
Beware: PayPal subscriptions abused to send fake purchase emails
An email scam is abusing abusing PayPal’s “Subscriptions” billing feature to send legitimate PayPal emails that contain fake purchase notifications embedded in the Customer service URL field. Over the past couple of months, people have reported [1, 2] receiving emails from PayPal stating, “Your automatic payment is no longer active.” The email includes a customer service URL field […]
Amazon pays $2.5 billion to settle Prime memberships lawsuit
Amazon will pay $2.5 billion to settle claims by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that it used dark patterns to trick millions of users into enrolling in its Prime program and made it as difficult as possible to cancel the recurring subscriptions. The settlement requires Amazon to pay a $1 billion civil penalty and […]
Microsoft gives US students a free year of Microsoft 365 Personal
Microsoft announced that starting this Thursday, all college students in the United States can get a free year of Microsoft 365 Personal. For everyone else, a yearly Microsoft 365 Personal subscription costs $99.99. It provides ransomware protection for photos and files stored on OneDrive, 1 TB of secure cloud storage, and can be used on up to […]
Microsoft: Windows Server hotpatching to require subscription
Microsoft has announced that it will soon introduce paid subscriptions for Windows Server 2025 hotpatching, a service that enables admins to install security updates without restarting. The company urged admins to try hotpatching free of charge before it becomes generally available in July, when they’ll have to pay for a subscription to test it. However, […]
Microsoft: Licensing issue blocks Microsoft 365 Family for some users
Microsoft is investigating a potential licensing issue blocking access to Microsoft 365 services for some customers with Family subscriptions. After a massive wave of user reports on social media and the company’s community website, Microsoft confirmed that some customers could no longer access Microsoft 365 using subscriptions that have yet to expire. As customers affected by the licensing issues reported, […]