Phishing E-mails Targeting Microsoft Accountholders, Caution Experts

Security researchers have just warned about scam e-mails, which asserting as being sent from Microsoft while notifying Internauts that they will soon have their accounts terminated, are spreading widely, published softpedia.com dated October 29, 2014.

Many Internauts continue to believe this kind of ruse that asks for immediate action by the user, so there is less possibility of detecting the fraud.

Within the current scam, the message reaching the user follows his supposed appeal to Microsoft for deactivating his A/C. However, he can cancel the appeal but in only 3 days that thus calls for the victim to act immediately.

Like always, a web-link is offered to halt the procedure for A/C termination, but this web-link takes onto one fake page where the user needs to log in. If he submits his login credentials inside the fields provided, the credentials directly get transmitted to the cyber criminals.

Any user having an account with Microsoft can use the company's varied services like accessing its OneDrive cloud repository that lets saving multimedia documents/files in it or utilizing its web-based e-mail system. Besides, the user's Microsoft account credentials can exactly match his username/password for accessing Windows' most recent edition.

The aforementioned fraudulent electronic mails are phishing e-mails, explain security researchers. phishing is described as an effort for obtaining critical info such as credit card particulars or passwords/usernames (similar as within the aforementioned instance) through disguise of some trustworthy entity represented in an electronic interaction. It is fundamentally a fraudulent campaign within which potential victims receive instant message, e-mail, telephone call or text message. Usually, these communications appear as coming from an authentic place like an organization else bank, while may yet extend as far as depicting an organization's logo inside the fraudulent electronic mail for giving the message an official appearance.

Finally, scammers abusing Microsoft's reputation through phishing e-mail outbreaks isn't unprecedented during 2014. For, early this year (2014) in February, fake e-mails impersonating Microsoft directed the e-mails' receivers to follow a web-link and fill in an automatic verification as a once-for-all procedure so that they won't face suspension of their e-mail A/Cs.

» SPAMfighter News - 11/3/2014