Today’s Scam of the day is about a phishing email presently circulating that attempts to lure you into clicking on a link in order to continue using your Yahoo email account. Two hundred Twenty Five million people use Yahoo email. Due to its popularity, scammers and identity thieves often send out phishing emails that appear to come from Yahoo, such as the one reproduced below that was sent to me by a Scamicide reader. If you click on the link in the email where it reads “New Version” one of two things can occur and both are bad. Either you will end up providing personal information to an identity thief or you will, merely by clicking on the link, download dangerous malware such as ransomware on to your phone, computer or other device. I have disabled the “New Version” link . If you had hovered your mouse over the original link, you would have seen that it would have taken you to a site that wasn’t related to the real Yahoo.
Here is a copy of the email presently circulating.
Subject: Unlocking your account
TIPS
One early indication that the email is a phishing email is that the email address of the sender is not that of the real Yahoo. Another indication is that your name appears nowhere in the email. It is obviously a generic phishing email sent out as a mass mailing.
Whenever you get an email, you cannot be sure who is really sending it. 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 email address or phone number that you know is accurate in order to find out if the communication was legitimate or not.
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