Hotmail Phishing scam Alert

[mickeyd]

I receive this today via email to my Hotmail account. It obviously is aimed at the dumbest of the dumb (may be the reason that they select me), but this may be a good opportunity to alert any loved ones who have a Hotmail account to avoid this like the plague.

"we are having congestions " = Does not seem like Hotmail lingo.

This Email is from Hotmail Customer Care and we are sending it to every Hotmail Email User Accounts Owner for safety. we are having congestions due to the anonymous registration of Hotmail accounts so we are shutting down some Hotmail accounts and your account was among those to be deleted. We are sending this email to you so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account. If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.Your User name, password, date of birth and your country information would be needed to verify your account.

Due to the congestion in all Hotmail users and removal of all unused Hotmail Accounts, Hotmail would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.

* Username: ..............................
* Password: ................................
* Date of Birth: ............................
* Country Or Territory: ................

After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconveniences.

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after two weeks of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.

 

[harley]

Standard poorly written phishing. I'm surprised it ever made it into your inbox. I'm pretty sure the normal spam filters would have sent it to the junk mail folder. Out of curiosity, what did the headers look like?

 

[kumquat]

Can't be phishing. No request for banking, credit card or other financial information. I'm sure Mr. Gates has outsourced Hotmail Customer Support to another country where technical support is superb but English is a second language. OK folks, come up with a new term, maybe email address harvesting (oops, old term)?

 

[harley]

Phishing is an attempt to get information about a person, not just banking stuff. If you get my Hotmail account and password there's a good chance that you might be able to see some of my banking transactions. Combine that with date of birth and the always publicly available mother's maiden name, and you have everything except my SSN. It's all phishing.

Via Wikipedia:

In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

 

[ls99]

They just want to know you a little bit better.

Sorta like the banks "know your customer" program, so they can rat on you little better. The banks maintain your profile, when you get outside of those "normal" parameters for deposits etc. they give a heads up to the friendly feds.

So call it the international know your customer expedition.

 

[CuppaJoe]

we are having congestions due to the anonymous registration of Hotmail accounts so we are shutting down some Hotmail accounts and your account was among those to be deleted.

This is really awful. If some of my former acquaintances lose their Hot Mail accounts, and get new e-mail addresses, I’ll have to go to the trouble of blocking their new addresses again. Why is it that most of the junk forwarded comes from Hot Mail accounts? YMMV. To be fair, one of them came to her senses and now only sends real e-mail to me, no more forwarded “did you hear about the alligators in the sewers” news.

nm

 

[kumquat]

Phishing is an attempt to get information ......... It's all phishing.

Seems my attempt at sarcasm failed.

 

[harley]

Yeppers. I didn't see any sarcasm. I think the outsourcing statement is probably accurate, except for the superb support part. That's why I always try to use the emoticons. Text doesn't do body language or facial expressions very well. Not to mention that many people don't recognize my sense of humor as such, even face to face.

 

[jazz4cash]

"Due to the congestion in all Hotmail users...."

I always knew there was something about Hotmail I didn't like.