What is the purpose of this scam?

[Bobbieo]

Dear Email Account Owner,

This message is from messaging center to all email
account user. We are currently upgrading our database and e-mail account center.
We are deleting all unused email account to create more space for
new accounts.

To prevent your account from closing you will have to update it below so that
we will know that it's an active account. (You are to send the information
below to enable us RECONFIRM YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT and for Upgrading)

Login name :(***********)
Email Username :(***********)
EMAIL Password :(***********)
Date of Birth : (***********)


Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/ her account within 24hours of this warning notice we are afraid you will have to lose your account permanently.

Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ

Thanks
Support Team

[Greyhound]

1. They get your name, DOB, and a valid email account.

There are many things that can be done with that info.

[Frank Cannon]

3. The password is useful information as well

A lot of people tend to use the same password for everything.

On a side note, why can't any of these scamming knotheads spell worth shit?

[Vincardog]

2. They want to steal. 1) Your computer and all the info on it 2) Your identity and all the credit

they can run up on it.

[Bobbieo]

6. I had pretty much figured it out but I wanted to see this message

put before DUers. It looks so official compared to the Nigerian 419s or whatever.

[BlooInBloo]

10. Um... that doesn't look remotely close to "official".

[Whoa_Nelly]

13. Exactly!

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/ her account within 24hours of this warning notice we are afraid you will have to lose your account permanently.


Someone has too much time on their hands, and can't write worth a shit. :eyes:



Oh, The Stupidity!

[BlooInBloo]

14. hahaha! Nice pic.

[scarletwoman]

4. Most likely identity theft, I would think. If someone can get access to your email, they can

probably access all kinds of stuff like your e-payments with your credit card, your e-bank statements, emails with your passwords, stuff like that.

Just guessing here.

sw

[blogslut]

5. The important thing is that you recognized it was a scam

Sadly, there's a lot of folks that won't.

[Kip Humphrey]

7. To infect the computers of those who read the email with malware embedded in smiley face GIFs

just kidding (I think).

[NeedleCast]

8. They can't do a lot with just this information

However, they do get access to your E-mail account and anything within it. Additionally, lots of people use the same login and password for lots of things.

[BlooInBloo]

11. More likely clicking somewhere downloads a natsy bug.

[hisownpetard]

21. Natsy, Natsy bugs! (Is that an alternate spelling for 'Nazi'?)

:hi:

[southerncrone]

9. This definitely sounds like a phishing scheme!

Contact the email company & ask if they are sending this type of email out. My guess is NO.

DO NOT USE A LINK PROVIDED IN THIS QUESTIONABLE EMAIL TO CONTACT ANYONE!!!!!!!!!!!

Most companies appreciate being made aware of these schemes.

They should NEVER ask for your password. Encryption is done on the server. That is why when you forget a password, they reset your account on the server with a new password that THEY supply. Then they ask you to set your own NEW password so you, & only you, can enter an encrypted password.

[Warpy]

12. You'll find your email account banned pretty quickly

because they'll be using it to send spam.

[Tunkamerica]

15. This message is from messaging center

We are all going to be in trouble if these douchebags ever get clever enough to learn basic grammar they might actually fool someone.

"Account owner that refuses to update his/ her account within 24hours of this warning notice we are afraid you will have to lose your account permanently."

Email companies will never ask for personal info. Why would they? They have it all. But it might be fun to write this person back and string them along for a while. Promise them info. if they'll prove to you they are who they say they are.

[spanone]

16. tell them goodbye....in fact tell them to get the f*ck out of your computer

[bridgit]

17. I think msn.com used to do that with free accounts maybe still do...

don't think it's a scam, think more like water rights in a desert where if the issuing authority sees you aren't using them, or haven't used them in a time-frame they revert back to the authority

[GReedDiamond]

18. No, do not give others the impression...

...that these kind of emails may be legitimate. They are not, and they never have been.

[bridgit]

20. No, msn.com *did* used to do that do not leave the impression they did not though insofar...

as the scam to which you are concerned as regards? I/we never respond to anything unless it is part of our global period; and looking back to the OP's "Dear Email Account Owner" and with greater allusions to "We are deleting all unused email account to create more space for new accounts" there is not enough data to conclude that such events as are known to occur at msn.com are themselves "scams".

What to me is more clear is that when one operates from underneath bona fide, well established global templates one trends toward either participating in or inviting scams be visited upon them. But there are ways to begin to tamp it all down scam or no...

http://free.avg.com

[MiniMe]

19. They delete email addresses that aren't used often, they don't send an email

asking you to provide that kind of info. This is a scam

[bridgit]

22. Sure they do, they send them to your hotmail inbox...

If you're receiving these kinds of queries in your OE or some such then it's time to review your security gates & practices

[GReedDiamond]

23. They do not, and I have never been asked,...

...by a legit email service of any kind, for this type of info, in order to "validate" my account:

Login name
Email Username
Email Password
Date of Birth

[bridgit]

24. You are wrong they do, your umbrage is elsewhere and I no longer expect anything else from DU

You've completely missed the point and that *is* the point you have an issue do not get a tissue report it http://www.spamcop.net there are so many ways to skin this bunny than just sitting there declaring everyone else wrong but yourself

[GReedDiamond]

25. OK, whatever you say.

The fact that I have never been asked to verify my email accounts by providing the information shown in the OP and in my last reply to you is of no consequence, I suppose. I have maintained yahoo and hotmail accounts for years, and they do not ask for this kind of information in order to "verify" my accounts. The only time I have been asked such things was during the original signup process to establish the email account(s).

Any other such requests, from whomever, for that kind of info are immediately shitcanned. And I have, whenever possible, forwarded such requests for private info to the appropriate "spoof"/security departments of the email provider being spoofed.

ANYBODY who asks for such information from me will NEVER get it.

ON EDIT: Here is a link to yahoo's "How can I recognize a phishing email?" in which they specifically point out that asking for passwords is a dead giveaway to a phishing scam: http://security.yahoo.com/article.html?aid=2006102502

Best wishes to a fellow Mark Ryden fan.