Is this 'Microsoft' email legitimate? And what should I do about it?

Many of you who have a Microsoft 365 subscription for Word, Excel and Powerpoint will have recently received an email from Microsoft, advising how you can change your Microsoft subscription and save some money.

I have had several people contact me asking if this email is legitimate. 

The short answer is 'yes it is' - probably. Microsoft has definitely sent around such an email. In my own case, I received 3 emails - where email 2 and 3 were corrections to the original and 2nd email!

As always with an email like this that entices you to click/tap a link and sign in, I am always extremely cautious before clicking any link - and make sure I do a series of checks before ever clicking/tapping the link.

There is always the danger that a scammer will replicate the content and send a phishing email that looks the same, to attempt steal your login credentials.

So here's how to check that the email in your own inbox is legitimate, and what to do if you receive it.

Checking the authenticity of this email (and any other email)

With any email such as this one from Microsoft, my first check is of the email address - by clicking/tapping on the email address to expose the full email address. In the Mail app on the iPhone and iPad, you need to tap the 'From' field (it will turn blue) and then tap a second time to view the email address. 

You will see in the below image, the From address for the email in question ends in 'microsoft.com' - so looks authentic.

If I'm on my computer, I then hover my mouse over the link to see the destination URL. On my iPhone, I touch and hold (don't tap) to preview the link address.

Again, in this email, the URL is for a microsoft.com web page (as shown in below image).

Having checked the link, I then clicked that link to see where it took me.

If you are NOT already signed in to your Microsoft account via your web browser, you will see the below page, with a URL that starts with login.live.com, as shown below. That page is authentic. If you see any other URL for the sign-in, do not sign in.

When you sign in to your Microsoft account - or if you were already signed in - you will see the page that is shown below, providing you with two options for your Microsoft 365 subscription.

Why did you get this email?

This email from Microsoft has resulted from legal action taken out here is Australia against Microsoft, for increasing subscription costs dramatically (by $40, which was a 29% increase for a Family subscription) 12 months ago, justifying this increase by the addition of their AI product (Copilot) to all subscriptions.

The majority of non-business Microsoft subscribers are not actually interested in Copilot, and certainly wouldn't choose to pay $40 more for their Microsoft subscription to include it.

Microsoft did offer a 'classic' version of the subscription that excluded Copilot and avoided the price increase, but did not make it clear to subscribers that this was an option - and certainly did not make it easy to find this version of the subscription. (At the time, I did look for it and couldn't find it.)

As a result, the majority of subscribers ended up paying the hefty increase in subscription cost, thinking there was no other option if they wanted to keep using their Microsoft Office products.

As a result of the recent legal action, Microsoft is now having to make it clear to all subscribers that they do have the option to downgrade their subscription to exclude Copilot and avoid the cost increase. This product is call the Classic version of Microsoft 365.

If you do choose to downgrade to Classic before 31/12/2025, Microsoft will refund for the extra you paid for any subscription after 30th November 2024. This refund amount will be credited to your Microsoft account, so will reduce any future renewal cost.

Will I be switching to Classic subscription?

My own subscription is due for renewal in early December 2025, so I am definitely going to downgrade before that date, so that my renewal will be $99 instead of $179 (i.e. the renewal would normally be $139 for a Family Classic subscription, but will be reduced by $40 because of the refund).

I might then decide at some later stage to upgrade again to incorporate Copilot.

But I will take the $40 refund now because I was so angry at the time of the 2024 renewal that Microsoft gave me no other option than to pay that increase.

For now, I am happy to do without Copilot in my personal Microsoft 365 subscription, because I have found ChatGPT more reliable in answering questions correctly than Copilot. I did enjoy trying out Copilot the Office apps - for example, to get a start on a new presentation - so may consider re-subscribing when I find myself needing that sort of service again.

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