Online Threat Alerts (OTA) - Alerting you to scams and frauds.

The "Microsoft Office 365 Suspension Notice" Phishing Scam
The Microsoft Office 365 Suspension Notice Phishing Scam

Microsoft users are asked to delete fake "Microsoft Office 365 Suspension Notice" email messages like the one below, which claim that their accounts will be will be deleted. The fake email messages are being sent by cybercriminals to frighten and trick the recipients into clicking on the link within them. The link goes to a phishing website or a fake website looking like Microsoft’s website, created by cybercriminals to trick potential victims into signing in. But, any attempts to sign into the fake website, will result in the victims’ Microsoft account usernames and passwords being sent to cybercriminals.

The "Microsoft Office 365 Suspension Notice" Phishing Scam

From: Microsoft AIert [mailto:mx-noreply445435@mail.protectionoffice-365.net]

Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2018 11:18 AM

Subject: [Account-Deactivation]

Ms-Office 365

Hello,

Your email account will be suspended soon because you failed to update. Kindly use the link below to update your e-mail. Please note this will be the last reminder before your account is deleted from our server.

Update Your E-mail Account From Here

We hope to serve you better.

Sincerely,

The Microsoft Team

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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