How to spot scams like "Your Account Security Settings May Need Attention"

What kind of scam is "Your Account Security Settings May Need Attention"?

Our investigation revealed that this is a phishing email disguised as a security alert from an online service provider. It includes a link to a fraudulent website aimed at stealing personal information from recipients. Whoever receives this email should disregard the message to prevent account compromise and other potential risks.

More about the "Your Account Security Settings May Need Attention" scam email

The email poses as a security notification and claims that the recipient's account settings may require attention. It urges the recipient to review their security settings through a provided link. The message falsely assures that it can be ignored if recent updates were made, and mentions that the service will never request a password via email.

The link, however, directs to a fraudulent website designed to steal personal information. On this site, visitors are instructed to enter their login credentials, which scammers can then use to gain unauthorized access to the victim's accounts (e.g., email, social media, or banking).

Once access is obtained, attackers may steal sensitive data, send further phishing messages from the compromised account, reset passwords on linked accounts, or attempt financial fraud if the email is connected to banking or payment services. Additionally, stolen credentials can be sold on dark web marketplaces.

Therefore, emails like this one should not be trusted and should be deleted if ever received.

Similar scam emails in general

These emails usually pressure recipients to act quickly and direct them to fraudulent web pages designed to capture email credentials, credit card information, or other sensitive data. Engaging with such scams can result in financial loss, identity theft, reputational harm, or other serious consequences.

In addition, some deceptive emails may carry malware. More examples of similar scam emails are "Security Notice – AI Assist Now Available", "Welcome to AI Powered Webmail", and "Important Account Update".

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Cybercriminals can distribute malware via email by including malicious attachments. These files can appear to be legitimate documents, such as Word or Excel files, PDFs, scripts, executables (.exe), or archives like ZIP and RAR. Opening these attachments or performing additional actions can result in a system infection.

Malware can also be spread through malicious links. Clicking such links may lead users to compromised or fraudulent websites that either automatically download harmful software or trick users into downloading and executing it themselves.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Users should avoid opening attachments or clicking links in suspicious emails or messages, especially if they are unexpected, irrelevant, or from unknown senders. It is important to keep the operating system, browsers, and applications up to date, and to use trusted security software. Software and files should only be downloaded from official websites or reputable app stores.

Users should also avoid interacting with ads, links, or buttons on untrustworthy websites and should not agree to receive notifications from such pages. Regular system scans with reputable security software can help detect and remove potential threats.

Text presented in the "Your Account Security Settings May Need Attention" email letter:

Subject: Your account security settings may need attention

Your account security settings may need attention

Please review your ******** security settings to ensure everything looks correct.

Review security settings

If you recently updated your settings, you can ignore this message.

For your security, ******** will never ask for your password via email. Always verify the domain matches .

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Quick menu:

• What is Your Account Security Settings May Need Attention phishing email?
• Types of malicious emails.
• How to spot a malicious email?
• What to do if you fell for an email scam?

Types of malicious emails:

Phishing Emails

Most commonly, cybercriminals use deceptive emails to trick Internet users into giving away their sensitive private information, for example, login information for various online services, email accounts, or online banking information.

Such attacks are called phishing. In a phishing attack, cybercriminals usually send an email message with some popular service logo (for example, Microsoft, DHL, Amazon, Netflix), create urgency (wrong shipping address, expired password, etc.), and place a link which they hope their potential victims will click on.

After clicking the link presented in such email message, victims are redirected to a fake website that looks identical or extremely similar to the original one. Victims are then asked to enter their password, credit card details, or some other information that gets stolen by cybercriminals.

Emails with Malicious Attachments

Another popular attack vector is email spam with malicious attachments that infect users' computers with malware. Malicious attachments usually carry trojans that are capable of stealing passwords, banking information, and other sensitive information.

In such attacks, cybercriminals' main goal is to trick their potential victims into opening an infected email attachment. To achieve this goal, email messages usually talk about recently received invoices, faxes, or voice messages.

If a potential victim falls for the lure and opens the attachment, their computers get infected, and cybercriminals can collect a lot of sensitive information.

While it's a more complicated method to steal personal information (spam filters and antivirus programs usually detect such attempts), if successful, cybercriminals can get a much wider array of data and can collect information for a long period of time.

Sextortion Emails

This is a type of phishing. In this case, users receive an email claiming that a cybercriminal could access the webcam of the potential victim and has a video recording of one's masturbation.

To get rid of the video, victims are asked to pay a ransom (usually using Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency). Nevertheless, all of these claims are false - users who receive such emails should ignore and delete them.

How to spot a malicious email?

While cyber criminals try to make their lure emails look trustworthy, here are some things that you should look for when trying to spot a phishing email:

• Check the sender's ("from") email address: Hover your mouse over the "from" address and check if it's legitimate. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft, be sure to check if the email address is @microsoft.com and not something suspicious like @m1crosoft.com, @microsfot.com, @account-security-noreply.com, etc.
• Check for generic greetings: If the greeting in the email is "Dear user", "Dear @youremail.com", "Dear valued customer", this should raise suspiciousness. Most commonly, companies call you by your name. Lack of this information could signal a phishing attempt.
• Check the links in the email: Hover your mouse over the link presented in the email, if the link that appears seems suspicious, don't click it. For example, if you received an email from Microsoft and the link in the email shows that it will go to firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0... you shouldn't trust it. It's best not to click any links in the emails but to visit the company website that sent you the email in the first place.
• Don't blindly trust email attachments: Most commonly, legitimate companies will ask you to log in to their website and to view any documents there; if you received an email with an attachment, it's a good idea to scan it with an antivirus application. Infected email attachments are a common attack vector used by cybercriminals.

To minimise the risk of opening phishing and malicious emails we recommend using Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows. 

Example of a spam email:

What to do if you fell for an email scam?

• If you clicked on a link in a phishing email and entered your password - be sure to change your password as soon as possible. Usually, cybercriminals collect stolen credentials and then sell them to other groups that use them for malicious purposes. If you change your password in a timely manner, there's a chance that criminals won't have enough time to do any damage.
• If you entered your credit card information - contact your bank as soon as possible and explain the situation. There's a good chance that you will need to cancel your compromised credit card and get a new one.
• If you see any signs of identity theft - you should immediately contact the Federal Trade Commission. This institution will collect information about your situation and create a personal recovery plan.
• If you opened a malicious attachment - your computer is probably infected, you should scan it with a reputable antivirus application. For this purpose, we recommend using  Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows.
• Help other Internet users - report phishing emails to Anti-Phishing Working Group, FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, National Fraud Information Center and U.S. Department of Justice.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why did I receive this email?

Scam emails are often sent to a large number of email addresses collected through data breaches, harvested from fraudulent websites, or obtained by other means. These messages are typically not crafted to target specific individuals.

I have provided my personal information when tricked by this email, what should I do?

If account credentials are compromised, the affected passwords should be changed as soon as possible. In cases where sensitive information such as credit card numbers or identification details is exposed, the appropriate institutions or authorities should be contacted.

I have downloaded and opened a file attached to an email, is my computer infected?

If the opened file is an executable, it most likely triggered the infection. If the file is a document such as a PDF or Word file, a computer may not be infected, as these files often require additional interaction to launch malware.

I have read the email but did not open the attachment, is my computer infected?

For malware to activate, user interaction is usually required, such as opening a malicious attachment or clicking on a harmful link. Thus, opening an email is not dangerous.

Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections that were present in email attachment?

Combo Cleaner is capable of detecting and removing the majority of known malware infections. Since advanced threats can embed themselves deep within a system, running a full system scan is strongly recommended.