Yahoo users are asked to be aware of email messages like the one below, which claim that their accounts are outdated. The email messages are phishing scam being sent by cyber criminals to steal Yahoo usernames and passwords, by tricking Yahoo users into visiting a phishing website that steals email account credentials.
A "Yahoo Your E-mail Account is Outdated" Phishing Scam
<cernet-helpdesk-ip@net.edu.cn> wrote:
YAHOO MAIL
Dear User,
Your E-mail account is outdated.
Yahoo! recommends you to Upgrade your account to prevent your email from being DE-activated within 24hrs.
Or Verify your E-mail account to activate upgrade.
This is to improve our service quality. We are sorry for inconveniences
Sincerely,
Yahoo! member services
Yahoo! Copyright © 2017 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
The link in the phishing email message goes to a fake or phishing Yahoo website, which will attempt to trick the potential victims into entering their usernames and passwords on it. If Yahoo users attempt to sign into phishing website with their Yahoo usernames and passwords, it will be sent to the cybercriminals behind the email scam, who will use the information to hijack their accounts. The hijacked Yahoo accounts will then be used by cyber criminals fraudulently.
Remember, if you receive email messages like these, please go directly to your email account instead of clicking on the links in the email messages. If there is anything wrong with your account, it will be shown to you after signing into your account. And if you were tricked by one of these phishing scams, please change your password immediately before your Yahoo account is hijacked.
This scam is similar to the following: