My former company would send out rewards as a thank you to employees. It was basically a “click here to receive your free gift!” email. I kept telling the security team that this was a TERRIBLE president but it continued none the less. The first time I got one I didn’t open it for ages, even after confirming the company was real. It was only after like the 5th nagging email that I asked security about it and they confirmed that it was in fact a real thing the company was using. I got a roomba, a nice outdoor chair, and some sweet headphones. =)
I'm pretty sure you meant "terrible precedent" but I giggled a bit thinking "yeah the company president is pretty bad for forcing this".
I kinda want to start using "setting a terrible president" now and see who calls me out on it. :D
There are SO MANY terrible practices like this carried out by companies big enough to know better. From registering new domains for email addresses (for a while a BigCorp customer of ours had a mix of @bigcorp.com and @bigcorp2.com email addresses, how the hell is any user meant to guess that MediumCorp hasn't also spun up a mediumcorp2.com mail server?!) to FedEx sending "click this link to pay import duties" texts from random unaffiliated (probably personal?) mobile numbers as their primary method of contacting recipients for import duties... The internet (like credit cards) is built on and around trust, and it shouldn't be.
Congrats on the loot, though! Your former company can't be all bad. ;)