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Email Theft
The Scam:
"We are closing inactive email accounts. Click on the link below to log in and verify your account is active."
The Solution:
Never log on to your web email by clicking on a link someone has sent you.
More information
We have recently come across a scam in which a mail is sent to free email addresses such as Googlemail, Yahoo and Hotmail.
There is a message in the mail saying that unused accounts are being deleted, and so the recipient should log in straight away and register if they want to keep the account. There is a link provided in the mail, which goes to a fake copy of the email website. If the victim is taken in and enters their login details, the scammers will immediately log in to the genuine website, change the victim's password (so that he or she can no longer access the account), and then send out an email to every address in their online address book, saying that the person is stuck in Nigeria and needs $3,000 to get home. Obviously, details of the scammer's bank account are provided. We expect that when the victim is eventually able to get back in to their account (which can take some time), all of his or her email addresses will have been deleted.
