Strange email from Microsoft

katies_mum

I have just received this email, never had one like this before and therefore, not sure if its legit or not. Please can anyone advise?

Microsoft accountUnusual sign-in activityWe've detected something unusual about a recent sign-in to the Microsoft account [EMAIL="d******@hotmail.co.uk"]d******@hotmail.co.uk[/EMAIL]. To help keep you safe, we've required an extra security challenge.Sign-in details:Country/region: United KingdomIP address: ***.***.***.***Date: 01/05/2014 14:09 (GMT)If this was you, then you can safely ignore this email.If you aren't sure whether this was you, a malicious user might have your password. Please review your account activity and we'll help you take corrective action.

pogofish

Nothing strange about that one at all - Seen loads of them over the years and in the vast majority of cases they are simple phishing attempts, although I have seen a genuine one to my back-up email addy on the odd occasion I've fluffed a password.

Sooler

Do you have a mobile app that is set to access your mail?
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/osecurity-oinfosafe/microsoft-account-unusual-sign-in-activity/128deefa-c83c-48a3-ae21-e26a06682d77

katies_mum

Thank you both.

Sooler, no I don`t have a mobile app (don`t think my phone would know what an app is, as it is that old!!)

Do I just ignor it?

Many thanks

bod1467

You could always try logging in to your Hotmail account to see if it's still working correctly.

BUT .... DO NOT DO THIS FROM ANY LINK IN THAT EMAIL.

katies_mum

Thank you, I have just tried that and its ok, I managed to log in with no problem. Think I`ll change my password to be on the safe side.

TheSaint_2

Bod, you are awesome

acehole

I can help with this, if you send me your bank account details, passwords and mothers maiden name will sort it in a jiffy, I also have a Nigerian uncle who has $30 million dollars to put in your account !!
that's about the level of these e mails, if in doubt you always have the delete button.
acehole

Jivesinger

katies_mum wrote: »

Please review your account activity and we'll help you take corrective action.

This is a specific thing which you can check:

Sign into Outlook.com and click on your name top-right to get to Account Settings. Within Account Settings, click on Recent Activity. (This may give you a security challenge and ask you to sign in with a code which they send to your mobile or whatever, to prove it's you.)

In the Recent Activity page, it will show you your recent activities on your account - have a look at these to see if they look OK. Note that it shows you a location on the map... which may well be miles away from where you actually are (based on where your ISP is). If this is always the same, I wouldn't worry too much about the map location being wrong.

Edit: I forgot to say - you can then compare the time and date mentioned in that email with the activity list held on Outlook.com. If there's a Security Challenge mentioned at that point,it will tell you if it was a real email or not. If it was real, and if it wasn't you that got the security challenge, then I think there's a button to click to do something about it. It may also be a good time to make sure you have a secondary email account / mobile number details up to date on that account, and you might consider two-step verification.

Ant555

Jivesinger wrote: »

In the Recent Activity page, it will show you your recent activities on your account - have a look at these to see if they look OK..

Blimey! - just checked that on my account and there are people all over the world trying to access my account and getting the password wrong.
I must be on a list somewhere as there are attempts from Peru, Argentina, Romania, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Brazil and many, many more over the last 2 days alone!

my password is 15+ characters long but i'm thinking of making it even longer and more complex now.

Jivesinger

Ant555 wrote: »

Blimey! - just checked that on my account and there are people all over the world trying to access my account and getting the password wrong.
I must be on a list somewhere as there are attempts from Peru, Argentina, Romania, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Iran, Brazil and many, many more over the last 2 days alone!

my password is 15+ characters long but i'm thinking of making it even longer and more complex now.

That doesn't look good!

I think there is a button/link to push on that screen that says "This wasn't me" or similar... it may be worth trying it!

I'd also do the stuff about checking your secondary emails etc are up to date and consider 2-step verification.

Also you might want to make sure it's notifying you so you get an email like the OP's original one (whether or not it's real) when odd things happen.