The email message below: "Your Microsoft Account Expires Soon! Please Update Now," which claims the recipients' accounts are about to expire, is a phishing scam. The email message was sent by cyber-criminals, whose intentions are to hijack their victims' email accounts and use them for malicious purposes. So, recipients of the same email message are advised not to follow the instructions in it.
The Fake Microsoft Email Message
From: member_updates00@ outlook.com
Subject: Your Microsoft account expires soon! Please update now
Microsoft account
Security info update
Dear Customer,
We noticed that some of your incoming emails was placed on hold due to you are still running on an older version and also you will be block from sending and receiving emails if an update response is not gotten from you within the next 48 hrs of receiving this notification.
we require you to update your identity with a security challenge
Update your account now
As part of our effort to improve your experience across our consumer services, we're updating the Microsoft Services Agreement and the Microsoft Privacy Statement.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
Learn how to make your account more secure.
Thanks,
The Microsoft account team
The link in the email message goes to a fake Hotmail, 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 Microsoft Hotmail/Live/Outlook immediately. If you are unable to, click here to report it to Microsoft.
This scam is similar to the following: