The email message below with the subject: "Mailbox at risk - Your Mailbox Will Be De-Activated," which claims that a request will be processed shortly to deactivate the recipients' email accounts, is a phishing scam created to steal Microsoft Outlook or Hotmail usernames and passwords. The email message was not sent by Microsoft, but by cyber-criminals, whose intentions are to hijack email accounts and use them for malicious purposes. So, recipients of the same email message are advised to delete it, and not follow the instructions in it.
The Phishing Microsoft Outlook Email Message
From: Customer Care <rachet1976@hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 8, 2018 1:15:27 PM
To: account.user@outlook.com
Subject: Mailbox at risk
Your Mailbox Will Be De-Activated
A termination request was received from your mailbox account, your mailbox will be terminated immediately.
The capacity storage of your email has dropped to 96MB from your 2GB. This is why we have placed your incoming emails on hold. We may be forced to shut down your account if data exceed below this capacity. You are required to upgrade your email capacity immediately to avoid suspension. If you would like to continue using your e-mail account.
Please follow these steps:
1. Upgrade my email capacity
2. You can also Increase your capacity to 10GB
3. Login to your email with correct email and password with the above link for an automatic upgrade
ACTIVATE
Team Security.
Copyright © 2018 All rights reserved.
Please do not reply to this message. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered.
The link in the email message goes to a fake Outlook or Microsoft website, which will attempt to trick the cyber-criminals' potential victims into entering their usernames and passwords on it. If the potential victims enter their Microsoft Outlook, Hotmail, Live usernames and passwords on the fake website, it will be sent to the cyber-criminals behind the email scam, who will use the information to hijack their accounts.
If you have received the same email message, please go directly to your email account instead of clicking on the links in the email message. And, if there is anything wrong with your account, it will be shown to you after signing into account. If you were tricked by the phishing email, please change your Microsoft Hotmail/Live/Outlook immediately. If you are unable to, click here to report it to Microsoft.
This scam is similar to the following: