‘Upgrade and Verify your Mailbox’ Phishing Scam Email

Apparently, one of my Hoax-Slayer email addresses needs to be verified. Alas, it seems that, so far, I have “not been able to meet up with the verification task”.

Supposedly, this “mailbox fault” means that I may not be able to receive emails.

All rather puzzling given that I’m the person who sets up and maintains hoax-slayer email addresses. And, for the life of me, I can’t recall sending myself the verification email! 🙂

Of course, the email is just another phishing scam. Clicking the link in the email opens a scam website that asks me to enter my email address and email password in the form provided. I’ll then see a message claiming that I have now verified my mailbox.

But, providing the email address and password would allow criminals to hijack my email account and use it to send spam, scam, and malware messages in my name.

An Example of the Scam Email

Scam Emails Are Personalized To Your Email Provider

In this campaign, the scammers are using a simple trick to personalize each scam email.

Typically in such phishing campaigns, the scammers send out vast numbers of identical emails in the hope of netting at least a few victims. In this case, they use an automated mechanism to personalize the text based on each email address the scam messages are sent to.

Many people have their name as the first part of their email address (your-name@your-email-provider.com). So, the scam email that you receive may have the greeting “Hello [Your Name]” and the mailbox references will list your email provider.

This personalisation makes it more likely that recipients will take the claims in the scam email seriously and click the link.

A Common Scammer Ruse

Scammers regularly send emails that falsely claim that the recipient’s email account needs to be verified or updated. Usually, the messages claim that the email account will not work properly or will be deactivated if users do not click the link and verify> Some versions simply ask you to reply with your login details.

If you receive such an email, do not click any links or open any attachments that it contains. Do not reply to the email.

It is always safest to login to your email accounts by entering the address into your browser’s address bar or via a trusted app rather than by clicking a link in an email.