• Request for passwords and other personal information. Most scams are designed to trick you into turning over your passwords, user names, account details and other personal information. Never send this information in an email message.

• Use of the well known company names. Cybercriminals often use the names of well-known companies, like Microsoft, to increase legitimacy and convince you to release your personal information. 

• Threats that require you to take action. In the scam above the cybercriminal claims that your account will be deleted if you do not respond with your personal information. Professional organisations generally do not send threatening messages by email and will not ask for personal information in an email message.

• Bad grammar and misspellings. Legitimate companies will have copyeditors who would never allow spelling and grammar mistakes to pass their desks.

• Generic greeting. Legitimate messages are not often addressed to “Account Owner.”  For example if Microsoft or your bank need to send you official correspondence about your email account, they will address you by name. However, remember that cybercriminals do have ways of getting your name from your email address. So, even is the email is address directly to you, check for other signs of a scam.

Here are some useful links from Microsoft where you can get more information regarding email scams and internet fraud.

 How to recognize phishing emails or links.

Avoid scams that use the Microsoft name fraudulently.

How to reduce the risk of online fraud.