Nope, no offers for money or asking me to send out e-mails.

It may be legit. Years ago I got invited from MS to betatest XP. You can hover your mouse over the link they provide & it should show you what the link is in the bottom of your browser.

What was the product?

Here is the e-mail:


Dear Jay,

Welcome!

You've been selected to participate in the new Microsoft® Premium Support Beta. We're delighted to have you onboard. As a beta participant, you will receive free computer support during the 3-month program. You'll be able to contact one of our Premium Support Professionals who will work to answer your question or solve your problem. We'll be trying out some innovative support tools, and we want to learn more about what you want and expect from a support offer.

At the conclusion of the 3-month Premium Support Beta, you will be given the opportunity to participate in the next phase of our beta program, which will introduce another new Microsoft product.

To get started, sign in to the Microsoft BetaPlace Web site (http://beta.microsoft.com) using the same Microsoft® .NET Passport account you used when signing up for this beta program.

Click the link at the bottom of the page to go to the Microsoft Premium Support Beta program page. This link can be found next to the blue Microsoft "This is your chance to make a difference!" icon.
Click Getting Started on the left side of the page to go to the MICROSOFT CORPORATION LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR BETA PRODUCTS. Read the license agreement. To continue, click I Agree at the bottom of the page. The next page will give you instructions on how to get started using Microsoft Premium Support. Before you continue, it is important to understand that the beta release of any product or service will not display the stability of a shipped Microsoft product. You may encounter problems with Microsoft Premium Support, which could possibly result in a loss or destruction of data. This release is not appropriate for production use, and we suggest that you back up your existing data before you use this service.

If you want to learn more about the Microsoft Premium Support Beta or give us feedback about the program, please go to Microsoft BetaPlace.

Thank you for participating in the Microsoft Premium Support Beta.

Sincerely,
The Microsoft Premium Support Team

Please note that your BetaID and password are personal to you and should be treated as confidential information. Microsoft® will never request that you send your password information to us via e-mail or by any other method. Any attempt to obtain your password could indicate fraudulent activity and should be reported to us immediately.


About this message:
You are receiving this message because you are a valued Microsoft BetaPlace member.

If you have questions about BetaPlace privacy policies, please read our privacy statement at
http://www.beta.microsoft.com/content/ParticipationInfo.asp?BP=mnuSiteInfo_Privacy&Page=privacy_statement.htm

It might be legit. I've done beta's for them in the past.

Check the return address. Was there a phone number?

Doing real beta testing is actually a lot of hard work. When I was a computer nerd it was fun, but not anymore.

The URL is right. Just key it in and don't click it. If you get in, then its legit.

First time you try to login, use the wrong password. The fakes will always let you thru.

Great! I'll give that a try (that's good to know about the bogus password thing).

[EDIT]
The bogus password would not work. So I guess it is legit. Thanks!

Just don't plug in any personal info beyond the minimum your MS Passport.

Last year, some kid in India found that by adding a few parameters to the regular Passport URL, he could get the password of any user. Any user worldwide.

That, coming after years of security concerns, killed it off for any serious use, and the few remaining vendors excused themselves.

I still wouldn't trust Passport with my credit cards etc. The system appears to have only minimal security added on afterwards, not in the foundation.