Hotmail and Yahoo Email Scam

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Hotmail and Yahoo Email Scam

The message states that they are having 'congestion' problems due to anonymous registrations and so they need to delete some accounts to deal with this problem.

To prevent your email account being closed, you are instructed to reply to the email and provide your username and password. Some emails ask for additional information.

This email is not from Hotmail, Windows Live or Yahoo. It is a phishing email scam designed to steal your account login details. If you reply, you will be handing over your email account to the scammers for them to do as they wish.

One of the scammers main uses of these email accounts is to gain access to the contact list. Once they have the contact list they can send emails to those contacts on the list,and it will appear to come from the account owner.

A common strategy is for the scammers to send an email to the contact list [which will be in the account holder's name], stating they are stuck in an overseas country, or had an accident in an overseas country, and they need money to be sent to them.

Some of the recipients will likely believe it and send money because it will come from the original account holder's account with their email signature etc.

The real owner of the email account is unlikely to know that this is happening.

Although the scammers can use different reasons to get you to send your login details [such as the email account exceeding its storage limit, or increased security changes or system upgrade] the result is always the same – they want you to send your login details.

Be cautious of any messages asking for login details as they are almost always a scam.

Remember - always watch for scams!

Steve