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Email phishing message claims Office 365 accounts will be deleted

The information security team has received numerous reports that, once again, a fraudulent email message about Office 365 accounts has been circulating. The message is being sent from a compromised Miami email account. The ISO has prevented further emails from being sent from one affected account, but there may be more compromised accounts.

This email urges recipients to verify an Office 365 account or face imminent termination of the account. According to the message, if the user does not re-verify their account, they will lose all the files in their Office 365 account. Please note: This is not true.

The email contains content similar to the following:

Subject: Miami University - Web Login Service

We received a request from you to terminate your Office 365 email due to a dual college/universities account. This process has begun by our administrator. If you did not authorize this action and you have no knowledge of it, you are advised to re-verify your account.

Please give us 24 hours to terminate your account if you initiated the request.

Failure to re-verify will result in the closure of your account and you will lose all of my files on these 365 accounts.

Copy and paste the URL Below into the address bar of your web browser to cancel the request ([link redacted for your safety])

Sincerely,
© 2023 Miami University All Rights Reserved


If you receive this email, please do not respond or click on any links within; just delete the message. This is common phishing practice to try to get recipients to click on fraudulent links and unknowingly download malicious programs to your machine, or steal personal data.

If you receive a message that you suspect to be a phishing message, please forward it to InfoSec@MiamiOH.edu. This allows the information security team to block sites that may be associated with phishing attacks. If you ever feel you may have responded to a fraudulent message or clicked a link in one, please contact IT Help immediately at 513-529-7900.

For more tips about remaining secure online and at Miami, visit the Security Corner.