‘Incoming Mail on Hold’ Email Phishing Scam

According to this email, which purports to be from the Email Security Team at Microsoft, your incoming mail is on hold.

Supposedly, the messages have been put on hold due to a recent server upgrade. The email instructs you to click a “verify” button to log in to your email account and deal with the problem.

However, the message is not a legitimate email security notification and it has no connection to Microsoft.

Instead, it is a phishing scam designed to steal your email account login details.

Your login credentials will be sent to criminals who will use it to hijack your email account. Once the criminals have gained access to your account, they can use it to send spam, scam, and malware emails in your name. They can also harvest personal information from your emails.

And, if the login details give access to linked services such as app stores and online file storage, the criminals can hijack these services as well.

Your email provider may occasionally send admin messages about account problems.  However, they are very unlikely to send an email demanding that you click a link to login and fix a supposed account issue. And, legitimate admin emails are unlikely to have glaring spelling and grammatical errors like those present in many scam emails.

Always login to your email account via a trusted app or by entering the address into your browser’s address bar. Normally, you will be notified about any account issues after you login.

If you receive one of these emails, just hit the delete key. Do not click any links or open any attachments that it contains.

A Screenshot of the scam email:

Transcript:

Incoming Mail on Hold

We noticed that you have (8) incoming mails on [email address] but have been place on hold due to recent upgrade in our server.

You have to login correctly to access your inbox, and your storage space will increase.

Note: ones you see this mail in your junk folder move it to inbox and verify your email account