How to spot scams like "cPanel Warning - Account Shutdown"

What kind of scam is "cPanel Warning - Account Shutdown"?

We have inspected the email and determined that it is a phishing email disguised as a warning from the email service provider. It is crafted to appear urgent and important to trick unsuspecting recipients into providing personal information on a fake site. Such emails should not be trusted and should be ignored.

More about the "cPanel Warning - Account Shutdown" scam email

This scam email claims to be a cPanel system notification and states that the recipient's email account will be shut down due to an annual upgrade or quota issue. It urges the recipient to act quickly. The message instructs the recipient to verify their email account by clicking the provided link labeled "CLICK HERE TO UPDATE CONFIRM".

The link in the email leads recipients to a fake login page designed to steal email credentials. Once fraudsters obtain these credentials, they can take over the victim's email account and use it to send fraudulent messages, distribute malware, collect sensitive data, or engage in other malicious activities.

The stolen credentials may also be used to try accessing other accounts, including social media, banking, or gaming platforms. This can result in identity theft, financial loss, reputational damage, or other issues. For these reasons, it is important to ignore such scam emails to avoid potential harm.

Conclusion

This email is a phishing attempt pretending to be a cPanel notification. Its goal is to trick recipients into revealing their email credentials, which can then be used for account takeover, identity theft, financial fraud, and other malicious activities. Such emails should be ignored and deleted immediately.

Examples of similar scams are "Wells Fargo - Pending Wire Transfer Email Scam", "Dubai Pay - Refund Claim Email Scam", and "Webmail Profile Will Be Deactivated Email Scam". In some cases, deceptive emails can be used to distribute malicious software.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Cybercriminals often use malicious emails to deliver malware. These emails usually contain attachments or links that appear legitimate but are not. They often include Word, Excel, or PDF documents, archives, scripts, or executables, and opening them or following the instructions they contain can launch malware on the system.

Links in these emails can direct users to fraudulent websites that automatically download malware or convince users to download and run it themselves. In most cases, malware cannot infect a computer on its own.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Software should be downloaded only from official sources or trusted app stores, and pirated programs, cracks, and key generators should be avoided. Keeping the operating system and applications up to date and running regular scans with reputable security software also helps protect the device from threats.

Users should exercise caution with emails or messages from unknown senders and avoid clicking on any links or opening attachments they contain. Content on untrustworthy websites, such as pop-ups, ads, or buttons, should not be trusted, and notifications from these sites should be blocked if prompted.

Text presented in the "cPanel Warning - Account Shutdown" email letter:

Subject: [********]: Please confirm to continue.

cPanel Warning !!!
ACCOUNT SHUTDOWN
_______

Your email account is currently undergoing an annual upgrade.

To avoid account auto shutdown. Please verify your email to complete this quota upgrade.
Shutdown warning sent to: ********
CLICK HERE TO UPDATE CONFIRM

Do you need help with updating your password?
cP

© 2026

******** | Privacy Policy

Fake website used in this scam:

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Quick menu:

• What is cPanel Warning - Account Shutdown 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?

These emails are generally generic and not personalized, and they are sent to many people at once. The email addresses of the recipients are often gathered from data breaches, insecure websites, or other sources.

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

If an account may have been compromised, the user should change the password immediately. Any stolen sensitive information, like ID numbers or credit card details, should be reported to the appropriate authorities.

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

The likelihood of malware infection depends on the type of file and how the user interacts with it. Executable files or scripts can infect a system as soon as they are opened, whereas documents and similar files are generally safe unless the user performs extra actions that run the malware.

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

A computer becomes infected only when a user interacts with malicious content, such as clicking a link or opening an attachment. Merely opening an email without taking any further action does not put the system at risk.

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

Combo Cleaner can detect and eliminate most known threats, but more sophisticated or deeply embedded malware may need a full system scan to be completely removed.