The email message below with subject: "Microsoft Account Closing," or "Closing Your Microsoft Account" is a phishing scam designed to steal Microsoft Hotmail/Live/Outlook user names and passwords. The email message was not sent by Microsoft, but by cyber-criminals, whose intentions are to hijack email accounts and use them for malicious purposes. So, recipients of the same email message are advised to delete and do not follow the instructions in it.
The "Microsoft Account Closing" Phishing Scam
Microsoft Account Closing
From: Microsoft (smfr@emailonline.com)
Microsoft account
Closing Your Microsoft Account
We are asking you to confirm your Microsoft Account to prevent your account disable. To help keep you safe, we required an extra security challenge.
If you have Confirm Your Microsoft Account Earlier, then you can safely ignore this email.
Confirm Your Account Login and Review recent activity
To opt out or change where you receive security notifications, click here.
Thanks,
The Microsoft account team
The link in the email message goes to a fake Outlook or Microsoft website, which will attempt to trick the cyber-criminals' potential victims into entering their usernames and passwords on it. If the potential victims enter their Microsoft Outlook, Hotmail, Live usernames and passwords on the fake website, it will be sent to the cyber-criminals behind the email scam, who will use the information to hijack their accounts.
If you have received the same email message, please go directly to your email account instead of clicking on the links in the email message. And, if there is anything wrong with your account, it will be shown to you after signing into account. If you were tricked by the phishing email, please change your Hotmail/Live/Outlook immediately. If you are unable to, click here to report it to Microsoft.
This scam is similar to the following: