How to identify scams like "Action Required: Update Your Email"

What is "Action Required: Update Your Email" scam?

We have reviewed this email and found that it is written by scammers who seek to trick recipients into disclosing personal information. Such scams are known as phishing attempts. This email is disguised as a notification from an email service provider and contains a link to a fake page designed to steal sensitive details.

More about the "Action Required: Update Your Email" scam email

The scam email is crafted to appear as an urgent account notification. It claims that messages could not be delivered to the recipient. It also pressures the recipient to update their email address by clicking a provided link ("Update Email") and warns that the link will expire within 48 hours.

Its purpose is to trick recipients into clicking the link, which leads to a phishing page designed to steal email account login credentials. Usually, when scammers obtain this information, they sell it to third parties or misuse it themselves. If misused, these details can be used to hijack accounts.

Compromised accounts can be used to harvest personal information (e.g., banking details or ID card information) and send fraudulent messages or deliver malware to others. Moreover, scammers may try to access social media, gaming, banking, or other accounts using the stolen login details.

Overall, victims of such scams may experience various issues, including identity theft, financial loss, and reputational damage. Thus, it is important to know how to recognise scam emails to avoid the associated threats.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this scam is designed to look urgent and important to deceive recipients into revealing sensitive information. Interacting with the provided link can lead to account compromise and cause other issues. Being careful and recognizing the warning signs of phishing emails is key to avoiding these threats.

Sometimes, falling for such scams can lead to computer infections. More examples of phishing emails are "Pantera Capital - Estate Recovery Email Scam", "Security Alert: Unsuccessful Login On A New Device Email Scam", and "iCloud Payment Method Declined Email Scam".

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Threat actors often spread malware through email by including harmful attachments, such as Word or Excel documents, PDFs, ZIP or RAR files, scripts, or executables. The malware typically infects the system when the recipient opens the file or activates features such as macros.

Emails may also contain links that lead to fake or compromised websites. These sites can automatically initiate malicious downloads or attempt to persuade users to manually download and run malware. A device becomes infected only when the user engages with the malicious attachment or link.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Do not open links or attachments in unexpected or irrelevant emails or other types of messages from unknown senders. Download software from official websites or app stores. Never use pirated software or tools, such as keygens or cracking tools. Avoid clicking on advertisements, links, pop-ups, buttons, and other elements encountered on shady sites.

Regularly update all apps and the operating system and run system scans using a reliable security tool.

Text presented in the "Action Required: Update Your Email Scam" email letter:

Subject: Action required for ******** on 12 December, 2025 !

Account Notification
Action required: update your email

We couldn't deliver messages to ********. To continue receiving important updates, please update your email address on file.
Update Email

If your email address is already correct, you don't need to do anything. This link will expire in 48 hours.

Need help? Visit our Help Center or contact support.
© 2025 ********

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Quick menu:

• What is Action Required: Update Your Email phishing attempt?
• 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?

Scammers usually collect email addresses through data breaches or misleading websites, then send out the same generic message to large numbers of people.

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

Update the passwords for any accounts that could be at risk if your login information was exposed. If other sensitive data, such as banking or identification details, was compromised, contact the appropriate institutions or authorities as soon as possible.

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

Whether a computer is infected depends on the type of file involved. For instance, executable files can run harmful code as soon as they are opened, while documents generally pose no threat unless the user enables features such as macros.

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

Opening and viewing an email does not put a device at risk. Malware can only infect the system if the user clicks on malicious links or opens malicious attachments/files.

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

Combo Cleaner can eliminate most known malware, but performing a full system scan helps detect deeply embedded or more sophisticated threats.