'Stopped processing incoming emails and PDF attachments' Email Scam
Internet scammers and con artists have been approaching potential victims via email for decades. Of course, their strategies are evolving constantly. Currently, the trend is to impersonate legitimate companies, organizations, or services. The user might be told that there is an issue with a specific service or feature they use. This is the exact plan of the con artists behind the 'Stopped processing incoming emails and PDF attachments' Email Scam.
Recipients of this email may be left thinking that they have been contacted by Microsoft. According to the message, the user's ability to process incoming emails and PDF attachments has been stopped. The user is then told to follow a link where they can update their mail, and turn the services back on. The link, however, does not lead to an official Microsoft website. Instead, it takes the user to a fake phishing page, which is made to look like a Microsoft-affiliated page.
Users are told to enter their email login credentials in the phishing page. Anyone who does this will end up unknowingly submitting their username and password to the attackers. This phishing scam can be incredibly dangerous, since having your email compromised may result in losing other accounts as well. We advise our readers to turn on two-factor authentication, since this is a great way to stop the scammers even if you fall for their con.
The 'Stopped processing incoming emails and PDF attachments' Email Scam messages often use the subject 'MAIL VALIDATION ALERT IN PROGRESS.' If you see such a message, you should know that it is fake, and its contents should be ignored. A similar con is the 'Mail Delivery Failure' Scam.
