Suspicious advertising noted on Japanese PSN

The What's New section of PlayStation 3 consoles connected to the Japanese PlayStation Network is hosting some very odd content.

PSN Stores noticed the ads while checking out this week's Japanese PlayStation Store content update.

The ads appear in a Sony-controlled space normally populated with links to new games and content, but look very similar to any number of spam scams you've probably seen on all kinds of sites.

Purporting to have a prize for the viewer, the ads ask users for their contact details; as most Internet savvy users will know, it's a very bad idea to hand anything over to these "services". You won't get a prize, unless you consider "junk email forever" a bonus.

Non-Sony advertising of any kind appearing in this section is extremely odd; we'll follow up with Sony to double check that the platform holder is aware of and condones the content.

The ads haven't shown up on the Australian or US XMBs at time of writing. Check out a video of PSN Stores demo-ing the ads below.