Your mailbox has exceeded the storage limit

I just got a new kind of SCAM:

The title of this micro-blog-post was the subject line of the email.  The scammer is pretending to be my email administrator!.  NOT!

Your mailbox has exceeded the storage limit which is 20GB as set by your administrator, You are currently running on 20.9GB.  You may not be able to send or receive new mail until you re-validate your mailbox. To re-validate your mailbox please click the link below:
[LINK EXPUNGED - it was BOGUS)
Thanks
System Administrator

Because I know my email administrator personally I knew right away that this was false. 

Even so, NEVER click on a link in an email you aren't sure of.  Because most of us have learned not to open suspect email attachments, now the scammers are trying to get us to click on links taking us to who knows where for what nefarious purpose.  I'll pass, thanks.

Even though most email programs give you the ability to use words to describe your link, it is a better practice to have the link show  up as the URL when you're sending your own email.  That way the people you are sending email too know where the link will take them, and will know right away if they don't end up in the right place.

Email from people you know can be suspect.  Scammers can "spoof" an email address.  I know that one of my earlier email addresses is being spoofed because I get bounced spam that I certainly never sent.   

Worse is when your email box is hacked. 

I am currently out of touch with one of my cousins because I've received email supposedly from her but which actually originated in China.  (It pays to hang out with nerds and geeks.)

I suspect that is what they are trying to do in this particular case.  If you "revalidate" and give them your email password, or if they can guess your password, that's giving them the keys to your emailbox.  Once they can get in they have access to all the email addresses, and can send out spam in your name.

My rule of thumb is, when I want to buy something or donate to something, I will find them.  At our house we NEVER buy anything from telephone solicitors, or answer spam.

Comments

[Cloe Blanchet]

Thanks for this post !
Was not 100% sure it was a fake.
Cloe