Microsoft Office 365 Account Upgrade Phishing Scam
The email message below with the subject: "Upgrade Your Microsoft Account," which claims the recipients need to update their accounts to prevent their incoming messages from being de-activated, is a phishing scam sent by cyber criminals and not by Microsoft. The fake email message was created by cyber criminals to frighten and trick the recipients into clicking on the link within it. The link goes to a phishing website or a fake website looking like Microsoft’s website, created by cyber criminals to trick potential victims into entering their Microsoft account usernames and passwords on it, by asking them to sign in. But, any attempts to sign into the fake website, will result in the victims’ Microsoft account usernames and passwords being sent to cyber criminals.
The "Microsoft Office 365 Account Upgrade" Phishing Scam
From: Office 365
Sent: 24 April 2017 09:29
To: Robert Awdry
Subject: Upgrade Your Microsoft Account.
microsoft office 365
Dear User,
Please note that all incoming message will be De-activated within 24hrs due to recent changes we have made to your e-mail Account.
Click here To update your account
Sincerely,
Microsoft Mail! Customer 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 (see below) 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 cybercriminals.
Microsoft users should never click on a link to sign into their accounts, they should instead, go directly to https://account.microsoft.com/ and sign-in from there. If there is something that needs to be done to their accounts, they will be notified. This is will prevent Microsoft users from visiting phishing websites disguised as legitimate Microsoft website that steals account credentials.
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Note: Some of the information in samples on this website may have been impersonated or spoofed.