"Account De-activation Notice" or "Closure Request to Close Down your Mailbox" Phishing Scams
Online users who have received email messages like the one below, which claim that their email accounts will be deactivated or closed down, should delete them. This is because the email messages are phishing scams being sent by cyber criminals to trick the recipients into clicking on the links in them that go to phishing websites that steal email account usernames and passwords.
A Sample of Phishing Scam
Account De-activation Notice.
Thu 15/06/2017 09:32
From: Mail Team
To: noreply@mail.com
Dear user,
We receive an authority from you to close down your mailbox account which is in progress within 48hrs.
note you will loose all your valuable mails in your inbox and sent folder, If you will like to continue using your mailbox you have this opportunity to cancel this request.
CLICK HERE TO CANCEL CLOSURE REQUEST NOW
If you fail to cancel this request before 48hrs you will not have access to you mailbox and it will be close down.
Thanks for your co-operation.
Request Team.
This mail was sent to %0% and can not be reply.
If the links in the phishing email messages are clicked by the recipients, they will be taken to a phishing website and ask to sign-in. If they attempt to do so, their email account credentials (usernames and passwords) will be sent to the cybercriminals behind the scam. Once the cybercriminals have gotten the stolen credentials, they will gain access to the accounts, hijack them, and use them fraudulently.
Therefore, online users who have received email messages with a link to update their information or make changes to their accounts should always go directly to their email account provider's website and sign into their accounts instead of clicking on the link. Once online users have signed into their accounts, they will be noticed of changes or updates, if there are any. Going directly to their email provider's website and signing in from there is the only guaranteed way of preventing online users from becoming victims of phishing scams.
Online users who have already been tricked by the phishing scam are asked change their passwords immediately before their accounts are hijacked and used fraudulently. If their accounts have already been hijacked by cyber criminals they need to contact their email providers for help.
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Note: Some of the information in samples on this website may have been impersonated or spoofed.