As you may have seen, in the past week there have been various reports of a scam / phishing e-mail that targets Outlook users by falsely claiming that it is an official message from Microsoft, asking users to visit a phishing website where they are prompted to enter their e-mail server information, user name, and password. Do not click on the link in this e-mail, or enter any of your personal information on the corresponding site.

We wanted to let all of you know that this message is absolutely not from Microsoft, and to take the following precautions:

  • Microsoft (and the Outlook team) will never ask for your personal information via e-mail.
  • In general, do not click on attachments or links in e-mail messages unless you completely trust the source / author of the message.
  • Keep your Junk E-mail filters up to date; the easiest way to do this is to run Windows Update, either by clicking on Windows Update in the Start Menu, or going to www.windowsupdate.com.

By following these as well as other general tips for e-mail safety, you can ensure that malicious e-mail or phishing scams such as these do not pose a threat to you as you use Outlook, or any e-mail client / service.

You can find a sample screenshot of the phishing e-mail on the Trend Micro blog, here.

Thanks,
The Outlook Team