Millions of people still use AOL. One reason is that you get greater email privacy when compared to some other email carriers. Due to its popularity, scammers and identity thieves often send out phishing emails that appear to come from AOL, such as the one reproduced below. The logo and format of this particular email that is presently circulating is quite poor. Compare it to the excellent counterfeit phishing email I included in the Scam of the Day for May 31, 2014. This one comes from an email address that has no relation to the company, AOL. Further, it is not directed to the recipient specifically by name. Like many similar scams, this one works by luring you into clicking on a link in the email in order to resolve a problem. However, if you click on the link, one of two things will happen. You either will be prompted to provide information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft or by clicking on the link you will unwittingly download a keystroke logging malware program that will steal all of the information from your computer and use it to make you a victim of identity theft. Here is how the email appears. DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK:
“Dear Aol User
You can not send or receive new messages until you re-validate your mailbox.
TIPS
When AOL communicates with its customers about their accounts, they do so by AOL Certified Mail, which will appear as a blue envelope in your inbox and will have an official AOL Mail seal on the border of the email. This particular email had neither and only had an easy to counterfeit AOL logo appear on the email. Whenever you get an email, you cannot be sure of from whom it really comes. Never click on a link unless you are absolutely sure that it is legitimate. If you think the email might be legitimate, The best thing to do is to contact the real company that the email purports to be from at an address or phone number that you know is accurate in order to find out if the communication was legitimate or not. Remember, never click on links in emails unless you have confirmed that they are legitimate.