How to spot phishing scams like Signed In To From A New Windows Device
Written by Tomas Meskauskas on (updated)
What kind of scam is "Signed In To From A New Windows Device"?
Our team has examined this email and learned that it cannot be trusted. Scammers behind it attempt to trick recipients into believing that someone has signed into their Outlook accounts. Their goal is to obtain login credentials through the provided website.
"Signed In To From A New Windows Device" email scam in detail
This phishing email is disguised as a letter from Microsoft. It claims that someone has accessed the Outlook account and encourages to review account activity through the provided page. It also provides fake sign-in activity details such as country/region, IP address, date, operating system, and browser.
The "REVIEW ACTIVITY" hyperlink in this email opens a deceptive website asking to provide an email address and password to sign in. This email must be ignored and reported. Providing login credentials on phishing websites can lead to identity theft, loss of access to various accounts, monetary loss, and other issues.
| Name | Signed In To From A New Windows Device Email Scam |
| Threat Type | Phishing, Scam, Social Engineering, Fraud |
| Fake Claim | Somene has signed into the Outlook account |
| Disguise | Letter from Microsoft regarding suspicious sign in activity |
| 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. |
Phishing emails in general
Phishing emails usually are disguised as important, urgent, official letters from legitimate entities. The purpose of such emails is to extract sensitive information such as credit card details, login credentials, social security numbers, etc.
More examples of similar emails are "Request To Close Your Email Scam", "New Contract Documents Received Email Scam", "Your Account Needs Attention! Email Scam". Another popular way to misuse emails for monetary gain or other purposes is to deliver malware.
How do spam campaigns infect computers?
When used to deliver malware, emails contain malicious links or attachments. In both cases, threat actors attempt to trick recipients into executing a malicious MS Office, PDF document, executable, JavaScript, or another file. Malicious emails usually are disguised as legitimate letters too.
How to avoid installation of malware?
Do not trust files and programs downloaded from or through unofficial pages, P2P networks, third-party downloaders, etc. Download them from official pages and use direct links. Also, do not open attachments and website links in irrelevant emails received from suspicious addresses. In most cases, such emails are malicious.
Update (and activate) the installed software and the operating system with tools/functions provided by its official developer. Keep the operating system and installed software up to date. 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 "Signed In To From A New Windows Device" email letter:
Subject: New device sign in to mail account
Dear -,
Your Account was just signed in to from a new Windows device. You're getting this email to make sure it was you. Kindly review mail account activity.
Sign-in details
Country/region: India
IP address: 118.69.72.66
Date: 1/03/2022 11:33 AM (GMT)
Platform: Windows
Browser: Internet Explorer.
REVIEW ACTIVITYYou received this email to let you know about important changes to your Google Account and services.
Regards.
Email Outlook Account-
Copyright © 2022 All Rights Reserved.
Screenshots of deceptive websites promoted using this email spam:
Another example of device sign in-themed scam email:
Text presented within:
Text presented within: Mailbox Security Alert!!!
New device signed in to
-
Your mail account was just signed in to from a new Windows device.
And it's requesting for account password change, please ignore this message if it's you.
Verify your mailbox now
You received this email to let you know about important changes to your email Account and services.
© 2022 - Admin.
Another example of a spam email promoting a phishing site:
Text presented within:
Subject: Important: ********, 1 new message on 9/22/2022 5:51:57 a.m.
******** sign-in added from a new device********,
Please review your recent sign-in activity on Web-App Chrome Window from added new device on 9/22/2022 5:51:57 a.m.:Location: Gyeonggi-do, 41, South Korea
IP: 162.156.128.238
********The device has been added to your sign-in list of known usual devices, which you can view here:
-
We had removed the device automatically, or go to setting after sign-in on Web-App ******** help link above to unauthorized
automatically any access to your account.
Copyright © ********
Delivered by ********
Screenshot of the promoted phishing site:
Instant automatic malware removal:
Manual threat removal might be a lengthy and complicated process that requires advanced IT skills. Combo Cleaner is a professional automatic malware removal tool that is recommended to get rid of malware. Download it by clicking the button below:
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Quick menu:
- What is Signed In To From A New Windows Device 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?
It is very uncommon for phishing emails to be personal. Typically, scammers send the same email to all email addresses in their database.
I have provided my personal information when tricked by this email, what should I do?
If you have provided your account login credentials (email address and password), change all passwords immediately. Especially if you have more than one account that can be accessed with the provided email address and password.
I have downloaded and opened a file attached to a malicious email, is my computer infected?
It depends on the file that has been opened. If that file is executable, then most probably, your computer is already infected. Other files (for example, MS Office documents) cannot infect computers without further interference.
I have read the email but didn't open the attachment, is my computer infected?
No, opening an email by itself is completely harmless. A computer cannot be infected without opening links or attached files.
Will Combo Cleaner remove malware infections that were present in email attachment?
Yes, Combo Cleaner can detect and eliminate almost all known malware. If a computer is infected with high-end malware, use a full scan feature. Otherwise, antivirus software may not detect malware that hides deep in the system.
Outstanding!
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