We have to be very clear here that anybody could have put this mail together, and may well not have anything to do with Russia directly.

Is this mail deliberately or accidentally referencing world events? The best thing to do is not reply, and delete the email. Either way, people are at risk from losing control of their account to the phishers. It’s also entirely possible the scammers will keep everything exclusively to communication via email. People sending a reply will almost certainly receive a request for login details, and possibly payment information, most likely via a bogus phishing page. They also managed to spell account wrong - “acount”. In this case, the email's subject line is “Report the user”, while the phisher’s mail address claims to be some form of Microsoft account protection.

Instead, it’s a Mailto: URI which opens a fresh email with a pre-filled message to be sent to a specific email account. Should the recipient click the button, they’re not forwarded to a report page. The mail provides a button to “report the user”, and an unsubscribe option.

If this was you, we'll trust similar activity in the future. We detected something unusual about a recent sign-in to the Microsoft accountĪ user from Russia/Moscow just logged into your account from a new device, If this wasn't you, please report the user. The email's subject line, “Microsoft account unusual sign-in activity”, is always guaranteed to attract some attention. Being on your guard will pay dividends over the coming days and weeks, as more of the below is sure to follow. We’ve received an interesting spam email which (deliberately or not) could get people thinking about the current international crisis.

Sign in to my msn email account