Hotmail account deactivated in 24 hours because of unsuccessful login attempts mail scam

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I got an email today in which I was asked to sign in or my email will be deactivated. Is this a scam? The email mentioned that my Hotmail email account will be deactivated in 24 hours because of several unsuccessful login attempts. Is this a scam?
Felisha Shaw

It’s not very difficult to identify an email scam – in your case, it looks like a phishing attempt. So here is a little exercise. Let’s see if you can spot the elements by which I’ve arrived at the conclusion that this ‘Hotmail account will be deactivated because of unsuccessful login attempts’ doesn’t originate from the legitimate Windows Live Hotmail service.

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Hotmail account will be deactivated within 24 hours message

Below is the full email Felisha had received. I’ve changed it at a couple of places (removed her actual Hotmail username).

Dear [USERNAME-REMOVED]@hotmail.com,

This e-mail has been sent to you by Hotmail to inform you that your account will be deactivated within the next 24 hours due to several unsuccessful login attemps on your account.

To prevent this to happen please login securely to our activation link below:

http://www.hotmail.com/vrf/configlog&torec=[USERNAME]@hotmail.com011mzApw&usrverif=1973289

If you have already confirmed your information then please disregard this message.

Regards,

WindowsLive Hotmail Team

© 2010 Windows Live inc.

I have no doubts that this is a scam because:

Conclusion: The email you’ve received with a threat of deactivation of Hotmail account in the next 24 hours because of unsuccessful login attempts is a fraudulent message. To identify email scams and phishing attacks, go through the message contents properly. Never click any link in a suspicious email. You can always copy/paste the same in a new browser window.

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