credit card Archives · Michelle Harris

HOTMAIL ALERT

I can’t believe this old fake phishing scam to steal your hotmail account is still being sent – its a variation of a spam email from years ago – but this has better English apart from a few spelling mistakes – and is possibly going to catch more people out.

We’ve seen these types of phishing scams on Twitter and Facebook a lot lately but none on Hotmail for a while. As far as I know.

What is phishing.

Phishing is attempting to acquire information (and sometimes, indirectly, money) such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing emails may contain links to websites that are infected with malware

The email seemingly from Windows Live ( Anti-spam team) states..

We are sending this e-mail to inform you that your e-mail account has excedeed it’s sending and receving limit in the last 7 days. Due to this, we have to suspend your account in order to prevent unwanted bots and spyware using our customer’s accounts.

The link is obviously bogus and I won’t post it here.

It looks official enough but the first thing that alerts me is – The spelling mistakes! Really, would Microsoft send out emails with spelling mistakes, but mostly because I don’t use this account! I do receive an few odd emails but I never send from it, so for me to have exceeded a limit over the last seven days would be pretty crazy.

Also not only would Microsoft not email you, unless you had emailed them for support or something, they wouldn’t be suspending your account and they certainly wouldn’t use a dodgy email address to send it from like this one.

Please do not click this link, this will allow the hacker to take over your account. If you get anything like this regarding any social media sites, bank accounts or such like with a link on, never click the link, go through to your account the normal way and ask them if they have emailed you or search for the answer.

I have now had a 2nd Email from a different email address, this is just to scare you into clicking the link.

The word phishing comes from the word fishing because it is a bait to get you to bite by clicking the malicious link.

Someone asked me this in the comments so I am putting it here

We heard today that the PlayStation network will return online today – I’m not sure we will believe them until it happens as they appear to be struggling.

On the 20th of April 2011 we were informed by Playstation that some areas of the Network were down. Since then its gone from bad to worse, with very inadequate information from Playstation.

The nightmare unfolds before our eyes.

Following many rumours we soon found out that the PlayStation network had in fact been attacked by hackers and millions of gamer’s personal information including credit card details may have been compromised.

26/4/11 – Sony shared that they had infact had an unauthorised intrusion into the network, and that some personal information including, names, addresses emails but that there was no evidence of that credit card information was stolen.

30/4/11- PlayStation announce that some service will be available this week – following a criminal cyber-attack on the company’s data centre on this press release at Playstation blog.

Playstation advised people to change their passwords and to keep a sharp eye on their bank statements, even though I also read that PlayStation said that credit card data was encrypted and no evidence that it had been taken.

2/5/11 – PlayStation – Said that they are working with law enforcements and forensic experts to identify the crimials behind the attack

To reiterate a few other security measures for your information: Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information. If you are asked for this information, you can be confident Sony is not the entity asking. say PlayStation Blog.

3/5/11 Sony Online Entertainment Issued a security press release. Confirming …

The personal information of the approximately 24.6 million SOE accounts that was illegally obtained, to the extent it had been provided to SOE, is as follows:

name
address
e-mail address
birthdate
gender
phone number
login name
hashed password

Playstation now say they’ve called in the FBI and say that they will be (will be?) sending e-mails to all consumers whose data may have been stolen. More here PlayStation Blog.

When the PSN is finally up and running (

[latest news – is today at 22.00) there will be an update and Sony advise you to change your password straight away.

The New York Times 12pm today – Sony Explains PlayStation Attack to Congress

I would have expected more from a company like Sony, no, we don’t know all of the details, but the most important thing is to keep your customers informed as soon as possible at all times. I hope that other game networks have taken note of this huge mess and will ensure proper precautions are taken.

My questions are;

Will it really be back today? Is it back yet?

Are Free Games enough compensation ?

Can we trust our information with PlayStation now?

What do you say?

Tag Archives: credit card

Hotmail Account Alert Phishing Scam #windowslive

HOTMAIL ALERT

What is phishing.

The email seemingly from Windows Live ( Anti-spam team) states..

I clicked the link, what do I do now?

Sony promises some Network and Qriocity service back today 4th May

The nightmare unfolds before our eyes.