"Microsoft account team" E-mail

Received an e-mail telling me my account has been "renamed" with a slightly different gmail address.

What is this??

Thank you

An invitation to getting malware on your computer.

Got a call from "Windows Computer Maintenance Department" this morning!  I told him I would call him back and asked for his name.  In a very heavy indian accent, he said his name was Chris Brown.  I couldn't stop laughing.  Then I said, really Chris, I'll call you back, right after I have my coffee. 

I said "OK, I'll play...what kind of computer do I have, and how did you get your diagnostic information?"

He hung up on me.

Face it, legit computer service does NOT come looking for you.

ffof said:

Got a call from "Windows Computer Maintenance Department" this morning!  I told him I would call him back and asked for his name.  In a very heavy indian accent, he said his name was Chris Brown.  I couldn't stop laughing.  Then I said, really Chris, I'll call you back, right after I have my coffee. 

exactly.

So, just delete it?

Scam.  Ignore and delete.

yes!  but also, examine closely the email address of the sender.  That is usually a big giveaway.  

ffof said:

yes!  but also, examine closely the email address of the sender.  That is usually a big giveaway.  

For what?

Last time one called me I told the guy on other end, "I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking to ruin my PC, I can tell you I don't have a PC. But what I do have is a Mac, and a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you never call me again, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."

Okay, I did not say that. L'esprit de l'escalier.

Ideally without ever opening it, so that you don't send back a tracker saying that you open this sort of email.

cubby said:

So, just delete it?

cubby said:

ffof said:

yes!  but also, examine closely the email address of the sender.  That is usually a big giveaway.  

For what?

first of all, an email telling you your gmail address needs to be changed?  Delete.  But if YOU are still not convinced, just look at the sender's address and figure out if it's an official google email.  It might sort of look like it, but on close examination, not.  You got google at your fingertips, cubby.  Use it.

I got one of those guys on the phone one day. "I'm calling about your computer" says he. Which computer I ask. I am calling about your computer he repeats. I repeat my response. Between the accent and the less than clear reception, we went round and round. The next thing I know he is saying, "Your poopy computer." Because I couldn't believe my ears, I said "Sorry?" He was so frustrated he called me ass hole. Again, because it was all so strange I said, did I hear you correctly. Then he spelled it out for me. Pretty strange, but pretty hilarious. 

very funny!  

Keep getting calls "from Microsoft security". Umm. Sure. I've started saying I have only Apple... They keep talking until I hang up!

You need better spam filters.  Things like that are in my junk folder so I never have to open them.  I always check the junk folder once a day to see if anything was incorrectly channeled there. There is even a category of the "Not Junk" button to say "My friend's been hacked."  Then the box get emptied without me opening any of them. 

When you examine the sender's email address, my MSN Outlook account has the address that appears in the junk inbox list.  It might look legit, so I open the email.  It is in a sort-of "safe mode" with many options blocked.  At that point, the email address that appears in the junk mailbox list has an additional email address in parentheses - this is the true sender's address and it tells me that my friend's email address was used as the sheep's clothing of this wolf.   Delete immediately.  

I would forward them to Google and/or Microsoft.  They each have "abuse" e-mails you can send them to to report them.

I know someone with a MAC that got a call from a 'Windows' security company saying her computer was infected.

mumstheword said:

I would forward them to Google and/or Microsoft.  They each have "abuse" e-mails you can send them to to report them.