"AOL! Mail Notification to Delete Your Email Box Permanently" Phishing Scam
The email message below with the subject: "AOL! Mail Notification," which claims that a request to delete the recipients' AOL email box or accounts permanently was received, and the recipients should click on a link in the same message to confirm the request, 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
From: online Mail elizabeth.grierson793@btinternet.com
Sent: Thu, Aug 11, 2016 11:45 am
Subject: Incoming Emails
AOL! Mail NotificationDear
We received your request at 10:15PM yesterday to delete your email box permanently. Please reconfirm your request by choosing either of the two options below but please note that if you fail to click on option1 we will have no other choice than to delete your email box.
1. Click here to continue using our service (log in your details)
2. Click here to discontinue using our service.Yours Sincerely,
A.O.L Support
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 in.
Now, AOL users who were tricked by phishing scams, should change their passwords immediately.
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Note: Some of the information in samples on this website may have been impersonated or spoofed.