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volvogirl1
340 Posts
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10819
August 5th, 2008 16:00
Is this hotmail message legit?
My mother got this email supposedly from hotmail to verify her account. The english and grammar aren't right. Sounds fishy to me. Can't find any phone number for hotmail support online. If it's real, how do I verify my acct? It says to comfirm your account details but nothing is shown to confirm. And the To: is the same as the From:
Hotmail Warning!!! Verify Your Account Now To Avoid It Closed ( VX2G99AAJ) From: Windows Live Team (nellphil@hotmail.com)
Dear Account User,
You are advise to verify and comfirm your account details below to enable us upgrade your account.
E.G Your Hotmail id, Password, Date Of Birth etc.
Anyone who fails to do his or her own will Automatically loses his or her own Account.
Thanks for using Hotmail
Dear Account User,
This message is from Hotmail message center to all hotmail account owners and premium account owners. We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail account center. We are deleting all unused Hotmail account to create more space for new accounts.
To prevent your account from closing you will have to update it below before three days from now!
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Posted August 5th, 2008 17:00
Most likely it is a scam (phishing). You can also contact hotmail on the web and post your question.347
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Posted August 5th, 2008 18:00
Yeah, abuse@hotmail.com should work just fine as it is one of the standard email addresses used by administrators. I second ky331's suggestion to forward the email (with full mail headers) to abuse@hotmail.com so they can act on it as they need to.347
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Posted August 5th, 2008 18:00
Christine,
I'd be VERY skeptical of that e-mail. as you noted, the spelling/grammar is quite poor [= NON-Professional], so that immediately is a warning sign.
the extreme ultimatum:
"Anyone who fails to do his or her own will Automatically loses his or her own Account".
is just a way to place fear in the recipient's mind, hoping for a quick/irrational response on their part.
asking for personal information (date of birth) seems unwarranted --- if combined with enough other information, this could result in identity theft.
there's even no reason for them to ask for your (mother's) password --- in fact, if revealed to them, the "crook" will then have the ability to log onto your mother's account, and then change the password, which will effectively block your mother out of future access to her account. also, the "crook" would be able to spam others from your mother's account, and who knows what else they might also be capable of.
Therefore, I would strongly suggest your mother NOT reply to that e-mail.
Rather, I would suggest she forward a copy of that e-mail, with FULL HEADERS showing, to
and to
for their consideration. (i believe these are the appropriate addresses for reporting such a matter. if not, worst thing that can happen is that it will be sent back to your mom).
347
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Posted August 5th, 2008 19:00
Been using hotmail for 10 years, never received a legit email from them that even comes close to that one.
Its a scam!
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Posted August 5th, 2008 19:00
@mombodog wrote:
Been using hotmail for 10 years, never received a legit email from them that even comes close to that one.
Its a scam!
You have such a way with words. :D
If mombodog thinks its bogus with his hotmail experience, i'm inclined to believe him. I think that makes a third vote for "forward it to abuse@hotmail.com".
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Posted August 5th, 2008 20:00
When I first signed up for hotmail accounts, it took all of 30 seconds, now how long does it take?
I should have signed up for a couple of dozen, in hind sight :smileysad:
Larry R
2 Intern
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1689 Posts
347
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Posted August 5th, 2008 16:00
I have seen a couple of people from the Windows Live team post here in the last week, and their email address (as listed in their profile) is @live.com and not @hotmail.com . If you are able to look at the mail headers (looks like garbage to most people, but it shows the entire history of the email's path through the internet to you) you can verify what server it came from and whether it is a legitimate email or not.
Unfortunately, I am not familiar with hotmail as I have never used it so I am unable to tell you of another way to verify that message. My personal guess, however, is that it is an attempt to get your account information and/or identity.