How to recognize phishing emails like Storage Server Failure?

What is Storage Server Failure email scam?

Scammers use email to trick recipients into providing their passwords, credit card details or other personal information. They send deceptive emails disguised as letters from legitimate entities with website links (or attachments) in them. This email is disguised as a letter from email service provider.

Storage Server Failure phishing email in detail

Scammers behind this email seek to trick recipients into providing their Microsoft 365 login credentials (email address and password) on a fake Microsoft page. They claim that the mail storage limit has reached its maximum capacity and encourage recipients to upgrade it immediately. Otherwise, they will not be able to send or receive emails.

The website's address in this phishing email is definitely not the address of any official Microsoft website. It is strongly recommended not to provide any information on websites like this, especially if links to these websites are included in suspicious emails.

Threat Summary:

Name	Storage Server Failure Email Scam
Threat Type	Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud
Fake Claim	Email storage is full and needs to be upgraded
Disguise	Letter from email service provider
Symptoms	Unauthorized online purchases, changed online account passwords, identity theft, illegal access of the computer.
Distribution methods	Deceptive emails, rogue online pop-up ads, search engine poisoning techniques, misspelled domains.
Damage	Loss of sensitive private information, monetary loss, identity theft.
Malware Removal (Windows)	To eliminate possible malware infections, scan your computer with legitimate antivirus software. Our security researchers recommend using Combo Cleaner. ▼ Download Combo Cleaner To use full-featured product, you have to purchase a license for Combo Cleaner. 7 days free trial available. Combo Cleaner is owned and operated by Rcs Lt, the parent company of PCRisk.com read more.

Phishing emails in general

Most phishing emails are disguised as official, important, and (or) urgent letters from legitimate companies, organizations, or other entities. More examples of similar emails are "DHL Express Shipment Confirmation", "New Documents Assigned", and "New Fax Received".

Scammers behind emails of this type attempt to trick recipients into providing personal information that could be used to steal online accounts, identities, make unauthorized purchases, and so on. Emails also can be used to distribute malicious software.

How do spam campaigns infect computers?

Emails used to deliver malware contain malicious attachments or website links. Either way, the main purpose of those emails is to trick recipients into opening a malicious Microsoft Office or PDF document, executable file, JavaScript file, RAR, ZIP, or another archive file designed to install malware (for example, ransomware, Trojan).

Malicious documents opened with Microsoft Office 2010 and later cannot install malware unless users enable editing/content (macros commands) in them. Older MS Office versions do not have the "Protected View" mode. Thus, malicious documents opened with older versions infect computers without asking any permission.

How to avoid installation of malware?

Users should not open email attachments or links in emails sent from unknown or suspicious addresses, especially if those links or files are included in irrelevant emails. Also, users should not trust downloads from unofficial pages, third-party downloaders, and other sources and use only official pages and direct links to download files, programs.

Additionally, users should update or activate installed software properly - it should be done using tools or functions provided by the official developers. One more way to keep a computer safe is to scan it for threats regularly and do it using a reputable antivirus or anti-spyware software.

If you've already opened malicious attachments, we recommend running a scan with Combo Cleaner Antivirus for Windows to automatically eliminate infiltrated malware.

Text presented in the Storage Server Failure email scam:

Subject: Note: ******** has reached the storage limit.

Disable Email Notifications - storage server failure

We write to inform you that you have used up your mail storage limit of 99.0 Gigabyte as defined per your system Admin.
You will be blocked for sending and receiving emails if you will not upgrade it today.
Kindly click on the link below for immediate upgrade to receive additional storage space.

Click Here To Add More Storage

Warm Regards,
Mail Service Administrator.

Client Area | Mail Service Blog

Screenshot of the fake Microsoft website designed to steal login credentials (email addresses and passwords):

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Quick menu:

• What is Storage Server Failure spam?
• 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.

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