Yahoo users, please delete security alert email messages which claim that your email accounts will be blocked from sending and receiving emails if you do not confirm within 24 hours. This is because the email messages are being sent by cybercriminals to frighten and trick the recipients into clicking on the link within them, by claiming they need to do so in order to prevent deactivation. But, the link goes to a phishing website or a fake website looking like Yahoo’s website, created by the same cybercriminals, to trick potential victims into entering their Yahoo account usernames and passwords on it, by asking them to sign in. But, any attempts to sign into the phishing or fake website will result in the victims’ Yahoo account usernames and passwords being sent to the cybercriminals.
Once cybercriminals have gotten their potential victims’ account credentials (usernames and passwords), they will use it to hijack their Yahoo 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 Yahoo account passwords immediately, before they are hijacked and used fraudulently by cybercriminals.
The "You Would be Blocked from Sending and Receiving Emails" Phishing Scam
Subject: Security Alart.!!
From: Yahoo Security <natasha_auer@umail.ucsb.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2017, 11:24 AM
Yahoo! Security Alert
You would be blocked from sending and receiving emails if not confirmed within 24hrs of receiving this automated mail for the newest yahoo version.
You are required to update through the link below.
UPDATE
Thanks for using Yahoo Mail Services
Yahoo Team
Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered.
For assistance, log in to your email! website and choose the "Help" link on any page.
Customer Service Email ID # 1009.
c 2017!, Inc. All rights reserved.
Yahoo users should never click on a link to sign into their accounts, they should instead, go directly to https://mail.yahoo.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 Yahoo users from visiting phishing websites disguised as legitimate Yahoo website that steal account credentials.