Microsoft Email Malware Scam (Fraud)
This is a VERY Important Alert!
In recent months, people (including some of OUR members) have been reporting a malicious scam using Microsoft as the bait. Here is how it works.

• You get an email from Microsoft. (Microsoft does not send you warnings about crimes you’ve committed or other such BAIT.)
• It informs you malware (the SCARE) has been put on your phone, PC or tablet. (Microsoft does not inform you about a specific malware. If you are using Microsoft, Norton/Samantic, McAfee or any other security suite of products, they will remove the malware instantly once detected as part of the service. They do not tell you what kind of malware it is. They get rid of it! That’s what you are already paying them for.)
• You are told you have committed a crime (the ALARM TO ACT) by having child pornography sites (the EMBARRASSMENT) written into your browser history that you cannot remove by clearing your browser history yourself.
• They offer to remove the infraction, for a fee (the TAKE). (Microsoft or any other security suite would not ask you to do that, as, we said above, they are already being paid to do that. If you don’t have a security suite, you should. But know this, Microsoft would not inform you of such a violation and ask for money. They’d inform the authorities.) *The work (the HOOK) involves gaining access to your device. (Never, ever allow someone you don’t know to have access to your device. And, you don’t know Microsoft!)
• The scam involves the SCAMMERS informing you they have erroneously deposited a sum of money on your device that they need to recover. (How and why, you may ask, would Microsoft be depositing money on your device, and if so, where on your device? And why couldn’t they retrieve it if they put it there in the first place? After all, they’re Microsoft.)
• They instruct you to get the money (the PAYOUT): --Go to your bank and withdraw the money in cash with instructions to tell no one, lie if anyone asks why you are withdrawing the money and call them back for further instructions on where to send the cash, or --Buy Amazon (or some other) gift card with your cash and send it to the address they give you or to go on the website they give you to buy the gift cards.

If this sound ridiculous, it is and it isn’t. It isn’t because people are being financially harmed by these people. It is because we have years of experience hearing about such gimmicks and we all should know better.

We have long stated, here in the Board Brief, the number one thing to do is DO NOT ENGAGE! Not engage means to think, look, ask someone else about the communication and, most importantly, delete things like this that come to you from sources you don’t know or sources you think you know (like Microsoft) who, when you think about it, would not contact you about such things in such ways.

OUR ADVICE
Be diligent and cautious when using digital tools. They are important, necessary, and useful in our everyday activities. Whatever your financial need, we’re here to help.