"Important Outlook Info" Email Phishing Scam
Outlook or Hotmail users, please be aware of the phishing email message below, which claims that Microsoft Outlook will discontinue support on the recipients' accounts, which will block the recipients from sending or receiving emails if they do not verify their accounts. The phishing email message is being sent by cyber criminals to frighten recipients into clicking on a link within the same email message. The link in the fake email message goes to a phishing website that will ask the recipients who have clicked on it to sign-in with their user names and passwords to cancel the termination request.
But, once the requested information is submitted, it will be sent to the cybercriminals behind the phishing scam. To protect against phishing scams, online users are asked to never click on a link to sign into their online accounts. They should instead, go directly to their online account provider's website by typing the website's address in their web browsers or use a popular search engine to find their online provider's website.
The Phishing “Important Outlook Info” Email Message
From: CUSTOMER CARE
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2016 11:05 PM
Subject: Important Outlook InfoDear Outlook User,
This is to inform you for the final time that on 27th May 2016, Microsoft Outlook will discontinue support on your account and security.
If you choose not to verify your account on or before 27th May 2016, your email will be blocked and you will not be able to read and send emails from the 28th of May 2016, and you will no longer have access to your email and many of the latest features for improved, conversations, contacts and attachments.
Take a minute to verify your account for a faster, safer and full-featured Microsoft Outlook experience.
verify your account
Thanks for using Microsoft service
Regards,
Hotmail Member Service .
Once cybercriminals have gotten their potential victims’ account credentials (usernames and passwords), they will use it to hijack their Microsoft accounts and use them fraudulently. Therefore, recipients of the phishing email message who were tricked into clicking on the link within it and have attempted to sign into the phishing or fake website that they were taken, are asked to change their Microsoft account passwords immediately, before they are hijacked and used fraudulently by cyber criminals.
Hotmail or Microsoft email account users who have received suspicious email messages can verify the authenticity of email messages, but going directly to www.hotmail.com, www.live.com or www.outlook.com and sign into their accounts from there. If there is something wrong with their accounts, they will be notified once they have signed in.
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Note: Some of the information in samples on this website may have been impersonated or spoofed.