Email Account ‘Server Upgrade Warning’ Phishing Scam

According to this supposed server upgrade warning, you have messages pending because you have used 98% of your email account storage.

The message looks like this:

From: Mail Admin

Subject: [Email address removed] server upgrade Warning!!

Attention : [email address removed]

Some of your mails are pending because you have used 98% of your storage.

Please Follow here to Verify and save new configuration to add more space to avoid account shutdown

Mail Verification Center.

The warning was supposedly sent by the ‘Mail Verification Center”.

However, the email is not an official email account notification. Instead, it is a phishing scam designed to harvest your email account password.

If you click the link in the scam email, you will be taken to a fraudulent webpage that features a generic email account login as shown in the following screenshot:

After you enter your password and hit the “Verify” button, the page will go through a fake verification process that supposedly validates your password and account information:

Finally, you will see a message that claims that the reconfirmation has been successful:

The criminals can now collect your email address and password and use them to take control of your email account. Once in, they can use your account to distribute scam, spam, and malware messages in your name.

Depending on what email service you are using, the login details you provided may also give access to linked services such as app stores and online document storage. If so, the criminals will also be able to access these linked services, steal your information, and conduct fraudulent transactions.

The criminals may manage to harvest and collate a large amount of your personal information from your email account and linked services. They may then be able to use this information to steal your identity.

Email account phishing scams like this one are very common.

Your email service provider may send you a notification if your storage quota has been used up. However, these notifications are unlikely to demand that you click a link in the email to fix the problem.

Always login to your email account via a trusted app or by entering the address into your browser’s address bar. If your email storage quota has been used up, you should be able to rectify the problem by logging into your online account and deleting unwanted emails.