"Email Deactivation - Verify Your Email Address" Microsoft Phishing Scam

The email message below with the subject: "Email Deactivation - Verify Your Email Address," which claims that the recipients' Microsoft account will be deactivated and subsequently closed down if they do not verify and update their accounts' information, is a phishing scam created to steal Microsoft 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 Phishing Microsoft Email Message

From: outlook team service@teamcenter. onmicrosoft.com
Date: 6 Jun 2016 19:56
Subject: Email Deactivation
Verify your email address
Dear User,
Our record indicates your account is not updated, which may lead to the close down of your account.
Please visit the link Verify Now to avoid the close down of your account and keep enjoying our services
Sincerely,
Microsoft Team
Microsoft Corporation | One Yahoo Way Redmond, WA 98052-6399

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 in. 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: