This afternoon, I checked my MSN inbox, and found a message from a friend on mine, which included a forwarded message... This message that he sent APPEARS to be legit, but shows evidence of being FRAUD! The E-Mail says that your account will be deleted unless you forward this message to fifteen others... So what's the security issue? Well, (1) its probably fake, and (2) the image was blocked by the MSN security scanner for virus-like reasons... Below is the complete message you may see...
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Dear Hotmail User,
We understand that you have previously received many messages that stated the closing of accounts not being used within our servers. This message, however, is your final warning. Within this message is encoded a small program that will located and debug your account when sent to fifteen other hotmail users. If you do not send this message to fifteen Hotmail users within 24 hours of receiving this message, your account will be PERMANETLY SHUT-DOWN. When and if you send this, we hereby grant that you will no longer receive such messages at this one.
We realize that this process is becoming an annoyance, however, this is the final message you will receive from the Hotmail Announcement Staff. Thank you for your time and cooperation.
Sincerely,
Calvin W. Kreantz
MSN Accounts Coordinator
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Also, this message comes out in a .gif picture file... I just took the liberty of typing it to warn everyone
I have just E-Mailed Microsoft to find out if this is a real message, and will be awaiting a reply for the next 24 hours at least. If you see this E-Mail (or one like it) around now, I would suggest waiting until I receive a reply from Microsoft... Because this message contains a virus... You don't want to send it to a friend or friends... I will keep you updated...
[glb]Flame[/glb]