Some PlayStation Network users (myself included) were treated to a nice little surprise upon logging in last night. A message from PSN was sent with the subject line of "$10 Credit" and to the collective surprise of people everywhere, this was totally not a scam. My first instinct was that PSN had been hacked again, and that the link included in the message would forward my bank account information to a conglomerate of Nigerian princes and long lost deceased relatives who had mysteriously worked me into their will. After jumping online to check out the legitimacy of this offer, I found that numerous other people had received the exact same message.

The body of the message reads:

Thank you for being a loyal customer and fan of the PlayStation Network. As a token of our appreciation, we've sent you $10.00 to spend on the PlayStation Store! Click on the link below to redeem your credit. Code expires 3/5/13.

I have no idea what I've done to earn this, as I was never a PlayStation Plus owner (except for that free month they gave everyone as a "sorry we lost your credit card information" consolation prize) and haven't spent a ton of money in the PlayStation Store. Not everyone who has a PSN account received the email, and as of yet there is no confirmed reason as to why some people got the free cash and why others didn't. Presumably, this has something to do with the impending PS4 announcement, and we'll be sure to keep you updated with more information as we find it.  For now, all you need to know is that the offer is legitimate and clicking on the link in the message does indeed add funds to your account, which is the exact opposite thing that usually happens when clicking on mysterious links in unsolicited messages.