when i had that problem with hotmail hackers, this is the enail that i got first that i think triggered it. it came into my hotmail inbox and messed everything up. that's why i don't have hotmail anymore.

now i got it on my verizon account. so be very careful. this is a scam and the info is used to get into your account. they never did anything with my info except make make me nuts, but i think they could have.

my advice is do not give this information out to anyone.

From: ©Webmail Administrator Internet Technical Support <[email protected]>
Subject: Dear Webmail Email User
To:
Date: Friday, April 23, 2010, 2:33 PM

Attention E-mail Account Holder,

Dear Webmail Email User. All mailhub systems will undergo regularly
scheduled maintenance, and access to your mailbox via our mail portal will
be unavailable for some time during this maintenance period.

We shall be carrying out service maintenance/upgrade on our database and
e-mail account center for better online services. We are also deleting all
unused e-mail accounts to create more space for new accounts.In order to
ensure you do not experience service interruptions or possible deactivation
of your e-mail account, Please you must reply to this mail immediately
confirming your e-mail account details below for confirmation and
identification.
_____________________________________
1. First Name & Last:
2. Full Login Email:
3. Username:
4 Password:
5. Current Password:
_____________________________________
Failure to do this may automatically render your e-mail account
deactivated from our e-mail database/mail server. To enable us upgrade
your e-mail account, please do reply to this mail.

Webmaster Information
Technical Services
Account Management.

I have earthlink and have gotten this message about 10 times in the past 3 months. I have never sent in my info and forwarded it to customer service.

So yes please beware!


Sheila

There's absolutely no reason to give out this information... they obviously already have your email address, and they already know your password...they send it to you if YOU forget it...

I have not received anything like this, but I do appreciate the information so I can be on the lookout for it.

I have a Gmail account and never had a single problem

Never never never answer an email requesting your password or account info. ESPECIALLY if it is from a "bank". I regularly get emails from random banks telling me they need my bank account information. Occasionally the email is named from a bank I use. Never will banks or email account providers or credit card companys ask for this information! If you recieve an email like this, contact the fraud department of the email account provider (I.e. Hotmail) or the bank whose name is being used and report the email! I have done that on several occasions. Never never never give this information to phone solicitors either!

There's a reason you have a password....it's so idiots like that can't get into your accounts. Do NOT give out passwords or personal info. If, in fact, they are cleaning out the e-mail logon IDs -- then they can do a data file that will search them out by "last accessed date". Anything that hasn't had an access since xx/xx/2009 for example. What you have is a scam!!!

Every couple of months I get one of those in my yahoo account. I always delete them.

i had one in my old hotmail account. it screwed up all my profile info, changed my password, my user id, everything. i couldn't get my own email. i couldn't get out of the account because i couldn't sign in. it went around in circles. finally i got an answer from hotmail telling me that because i was not a paid user (i didn't pay for msn - i had free hotmail) i had no support, but they would try to close the account. we never could. i still don't know why. they got me in only long enough to delete my entire contact list, but only after my contacts got emails from 'me', saying i was in london and needed money. there was recently an article in the local paper telling about that particular scam. then, i was suddenly unable to get in again and i didn't care. the account is still open, as far as i know. i have my info out of there, so i don't care. i never had that problem with gmail.

now, for the first time i got this email in my verizon! yahoo account. 2x in one day. so it's going around again. so just be on the lookout. i was so stupid.

In addition to all the above, one huge tip off is spelling and punctuation errors.

I always figure if they are contacting me they would already have that information. So if they are making the contact - I hit DELETE! Even if I get something from my interent provider - I call them rather then do anything via email.

I got this same email...I only open email from people or companies that I purchase from. I am so computer inept...LOL...

I got one from PayPal a couple of years ago - it looked VERY similar to the regular PayPal - except it asked for the password to my credit card.

I cannot believe I was so dumb!

Anyway, PayPal does have a phone number to inquire about things like that - it wasn't very easy to find, but it is in there somewhere.

If you get a strange thing from what appears to be PayPal, forward it to:

[email protected]

Thanks for the heads up. Why do people do things like this.

They are looking to collect personal information, it's commonly known as a "phishing scam". It's still absolutely stunning how successful this crooks are, but it's literally a numbers game.

To respond to these bogus emails helps further their crimes. To reply in anyway validates your email so they can recycle your address, sell it to other scammers, and well, it just gets worse from there.

I received the "Paypal" bogus email too, along with one from the "IRS". Both were pretty good compared to many that get thru, but the format, wording and spelling gave it away.

One of those news shows, 20/20, Dateline or 60 minutes, showed how these types of emails originate with people in foreign countries typing away in computer kiosks, who in turn, were "working" for other scammers in the pyramid.

If I can pass along just one thing.............if a legitimate company or business that you have or have had dealings with before is attempting to contact you via email they will NEVER, EVER ask you to submit personal identifying information under ANY circumstances. If for any reason you feel it is legit, before you do anything, CALL the business first. However, DO NOT use the numbers that may be contained in the questionable e-mail. Go the the business' OFFICIAL website and call from there.

It pays to protect yourself so that you are not the next statistic.

GOOD ADVICE!!!!

Thanks for the heads up on this. I am not computer savy, so I will be aware.

I've had hotmail for over 11 years and have never had a problem. Do not ever give out your personal info - no email account, paypal account, ebay account, bank account etc. would ever need to know this info. Please everyone, be careful.

Thanks for sharing that information. Most helpful.

When you get something like this before you delete it, set you mail for full headers and then forward it to Abuse.

I have not gotten an email as that. And true You should never give out your password no matter who asks for it! That is a red flag for sure.

oh yeah, that was why I quit using e-bay.....paypal hacker. Thank goodness my bank contacted me because it was out of character for my use. I had a credit card but I didn't use it but only to register on Ebay and Pay Pal......I never used it, then charges began and they were going to India. The routing number they gave my bank allerted them and they called me. The culprit might not have been in India, but he sure thought he'd get three drafts that day and they'd called me and stopped it right then and two more came in. I think they got him......mean people in this world, you just can't be too careful. Blessings, Ruth

Thank you Butterflywing for posting this info. I've gotten about three of these emails but have deleted them because they "should" know my password (if it was ligit and not be asking for it, I'm thinking)....so now I will block them instead of deleting....oh, mine says windows hotmail, but my email is not hotmail, but a part of it I believe....msn. Anyway, thanks again for the info. Ellen

Great to share this kind of thing it really does help people who are not as computer savvy as others. mrspete brings up a good point....it may be a good idea to have one separate credit card (with a small amount of credit) for online purchases. It is much easier to track activity and your losses (hopefully none) will not impact as heavily as if on your regular line of credit.

Great advice. Sorry you had to go through this.

Thanks for the warning.

A good thing to have is your own email address in your contact list. Someone hacked into my email and sent a letter out to every contact I had as if they were me. As soon as I saw it I sent a letter out to all my friends saying it wasn't me. If I hadn't had my email address in my contacts I would have never known about this email.

I got an e-mail from "my internet provider" saying they were blocking my account because they thought someonelse was using it. I thought it was kind of strange so I phoned the company about it. They said to just delete it because they never send anything like that. Today I got 4 of the same e-mails!! DELETE!!!!! Don't OPEN!!!!