The email message below: "Important Mail Update - Your e-mail account will be Terminated within 48Hrs," is a phishing scam. The email message was not sent my Microsoft Outlook or Hotmail. It was instead sent by cyber-criminals to steal the recipients' email address usernames and passwords, by tricking them into clicking on a malicious link within it. The malicious link will take the recipients to a fake or bogus website looking like Microsoft Hotmail or Outlook, and ask them to sign in. Once the potential victims attempt to sign-in on the fake website, their information will be sent to the cyber-criminals, who will use it to hijack their accounts and use the accounts fraudulently.
The Phishing Microsoft Outlook/Hotmail Email Message
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Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2015 23:00:03 +0000
From: sales@optinaintl.com
Subject: IMPORTANT MAIL UPDATE
Windows Live
IMPORTANT MAIL UPDATE,
Dear Customer:,
Note:
Your e-mail account will be Terminated within 48Hrs.in Order to remain active, Use the following link to update your account
login.hotmail.com/login?
Thank you for using Outlook Account.
Copyright 2015 Outlook. All Rights Reserved
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Remember, if you enter your email account's username and password on the bogus website, it will be sent to the scammers behind the scam. With access to your account, these scammers can change your password and lock you out of it.
Also remember, if you receive any email message about your email account, instead of clicking on any the link in it, please sign into your account by going directly to your email address provider's website.
E.g. if you have a Hotmail address, go directly to your account using the following links: www.live.com, hotmail.com, outlook.com and sign in from there; doing this, will ensure that you are not on a fake website. Once signed in, any important message or notification will be displayed to you.
Now, if you were tricked into clicking on the link in the malicious email message and have entered your email account's username and password on the fake or phishing website that the link took you to, please change your email account password immediately.