The email message below, which claims that an unusual sign-in to the recipients' AOL account was detected from a particular IP address, country or location, is a phishing scam created to steal AOL user names and passwords. The email message was not sent by AOL, but by cyber-criminals, whose intentions are to gain access to the potential victims' email accounts and use them for malicious or fraudulent purposes.
The AOL Email Phishing Scam
Sign-in activity
We detected something unusual about a recent sign-in to the AOL account *****@aol.com.to help keep you safe, we required an extra security challenge.
Sign-in details:
Country/region: United States
IP address: 167.160.99.100
If you're not sure this was you, Please review your recent activity and we'll help you take corrective action.
Review recent activity
Login and wait for response from AOL MAIL TEAM.
Sincerely,
AOL Member Service
The link in the email message goes to a fake AOL website in attempt to trick the potential victims into entering their usernames and passwords on it. If the potential victims enter their AOL 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 the victims' accounts.
Therefore, AOL users who have received email messages like the one above, should go directly to their email accounts instead of clicking on the links in the email messages. If there is anything wrong with their accounts, it will be shown to them after signing into.
Now, AOL users who were tricked by phishing scams, should change their passwords immediately.