Often, when we see emails similar to the one above, they turn out to be fake. Scammers will make emails look like the real thing just so you’ll click and fall for their attempt to steal your money and/or personal information.
Lately, we’ve had a number of people log in to Remote Technical Support with this email, asking if it’s a fake. It’s not. The email above is real.
More and more email providers are forcing you to make changes if you want to get your email through what they call “third-party” apps. Examples of these apps would be Microsoft Outlook, Windows 10 Mail, Mac Mail, Thunderbird and smartphone Mail. Your normal password will no longer work in these apps. Instead, you have to get a special password that works only with these third-party programs. AT&T calls these a “Secure Mail Key” while others have different names. In Gmail, they don’t yet have a separate password but they do require you to turn off “secure apps” if you want to use a third-party application.
Why are these email providers doing this? There are probably a variety of reasons but, the way I see, there’s one main reason – money, of course. What they really want for you to do is get your email through their own app or through webmail where you can be exposed to advertisements.
At any rate, if you receive an email like the one above, look at it carefully to make sure it’s real. (Does it have your name – like this one had Priscilla? Do the links show a correct address in the bubble when you hover over them?) You should note that none of the links in the above email ask you for any personal information, so if you get an email like this one but it asks for your info, stop, it’s probably a fake.
Finally, remember, even with legitimate emails, if they are about anything financial or personal and you’re not used to getting them, it’s always a good idea to go log into a site on your own instead of clicking on an email. For instance, I get an email from my bank every month telling me my statement is ready and I can click to view it. That’s fine. However, if I got an email purporting to be from my bank saying there’s an issue and I need to verify some information, I would never click on any links in that email. Instead, I’d open a browser or my bank app, log in and see if there are any special messages for me. It’s always better to err on the side of caution…