Oct 24, 2012
Similar recent scams have used various high profile retailer and business names, including Amazon, Best Buy, Macy's, Starbucks, Target, Visa, and Wal-Mart. A slightly older scam variant claimed that the recipients were "selected" to test costly toys from Apple. The scammers don't need any hacked or purchased customer data to run this scheme, only to spray their spam in buckshot fashion, on the quite reasonable chance they will hit gullible people who frequent those businesses.
There is, in short, no "free" gift card and no point in throwing tantrums in this forum or begging for someone to send a prize. Some reports indicate that victims who follow the scammer's instructions are coaxed into signing on to a whole series of suspicious "offers", exposing themselves to yet more scam activity. Even IF they do get some stupid retail card at the end of the rainbow, they've already paid for it once or twice over.