Billionaire Space Race and the $10 Million Microsoft Gift Card Cheat

The Daily Dive

Richard Branson and his team at Virgin Galactic successfully completed their trip to the edge of space 53 miles above the earth's surface. The aim of the mission was to kick-start a new space-tourism industry and showcase the safety and security of the technology. Ginger Gibson, deputy Washington digital editor at NBC News joins us for this new billionaire space race and a look at how President Biden's agenda is faring in Washington, from early successes, to what's up in the air, and what has completely stalled out.

Next, a story about a junior Microsoft engineer who figured out how to generate Xbox gift card codes and sell them for bitcoin in a scheme that netted him over $10 million. This engineer worked in a department that tested the online infrastructure by generating codes and making purchases. The purchases didn't go through as they were only tests, but the gift card codes had real money associated with them. While the scheme was simple and successful, he left a lot of breadcrumbs that investigators used to catch him. Austin Carr, technology reporter at Bloomberg News, joins us for this $10 million gift card cheat.

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