How to remove “Last Warning: Upgrade your email to avoid Shutting Down” scam

“Last Warning: Upgrade your email to avoid Shutting Down” is a fake email that seeks to steal your credentials

“Last Warning: Upgrade your email to avoid Shutting Down” scam is a typical attempt to fool users into providing their personal details. In this case, the message is spread via email and claims that the user's email account is in jeopardy due to “upgrading” or “general maintenance.”

The email then proceeds to say that the email account would be blocked if the contact by the user is not made. At the bottom of the email, there is a link that allegedly leads to users' account maintenance – they should click it in order to avoid the block. Please do not interact with the received email, or you may end up disclosing your private data to cybercriminals, infecting your system with malware, or losing money to other scam sites.

The fake email

“Last Warning: Upgrade your email to avoid Shutting Down” is your typical scare campaign aimed at users to frighten them. As evident, those receiving the message own an email account, and some would be concerned that it may get compromised. Except that this spam message was engineered relatively poorly, and there's no reason to believe it. Here's the full message of the fake email:

Subject: Last Warning: Upgrade your email to avoid Shutting Down

Hi [email],

Recently we received some notifications regarding your account: [email], which might be due for general maintenance and upgrading.

We will ensure that we block your account if we do not hear from you. Please kindly click the link below to carry out the maintenance on your account.
Continue Account Maintenance

Thanks,
The Email Team

This email has been sent from an unmonitored email address. Please do not reply to this message. We are unable to respond to replies.

2019 Email Administrator Inc. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy policy

There is no indication of what “email team” this is or what kind of “maintenance” or “upgrading” this is all about. It seems like crooks simply wrote a message without ever thinking of the details. Unfortunately, this can be enough for some users to believe that their email account is actually in danger and click the “Continue to Account Maintenance” button, which would redirect them to a specially crafted spoofing^[1] website.

The page may seem like it comes from Roundcube – a legitimate email client based on open-source^[2] software, which is relatively widely used. Unfortunately, there is nothing real about this website, and it is only used as a disguise for the “Last Warning: Upgrade your email to avoid Shutting Down” creators to harvest users' email account information.

Those who enter their Username and Password would immediately pass on this information to the cybercriminals behind the scam. These details can be later used for further scam campaigns or could be sold to cybercriminals.

Spam email could include malware payloads

Spam emails are very prevalent, mostly because cybercriminals can automate the process thanks to the established botnet^[3] – a network of infected computers that serve as distributors, capable of sending thousands of emails for as long as they are operational. While, in most cases, the phishing material is only there to advertise some products or redirect users to some useless subscription services, the vast majority of email spam is malicious.

Sextortion scams, for example, have seen a significant rise in the past few years – we have recently covered “It's Unpleasant To Start The Conversation With Bad News” and “Unfortunately, there are some bad news for you” are just a few examples. They are extremely effective because they attempt to use users' emotions for blackmail.

However, the most popular types of spam emails are those that include malware attached to them. It usually comes in the form of MS Office documents, although VBS, EXE, and other file types can be used as well. Therefore, it is vital not to interact with such emails, as they are made for all types of malicious deeds that can only harm victims.

What to do if you interacted with the “Last Warning: Upgrade your email to avoid Shutting Down” email scam

Evidently, it is best not to click anything on the received scam email, as there could be booby-trapped links or malicious payloads included as attachments. Even clicking the promoted link is unlikely to land you in trouble (unless you don't have a reputable security program installed on your system), but entering your account information, clicking links, or downloading files on the fake website can certainly do so.

There are a few tips that we would like to provide to those that have already been tricked, although it all depends on one's actions. For example, if you have entered your email credentials into the spoofing site, you should immediately change the password of your email address. If you use the same password for any of your other accounts (which you shouldn't do in the first place!), change it for those accounts as well.

Lastly, you should perform a full system scan with SpyHunterCombo Cleaner, MalwarebytesMalwarebytes, or another powerful anti-malware software. This is especially important if you have clicked the link in the “Last Warning: Upgrade your email to avoid Shutting Down” email and further interacted with the site you got redirected to from there. Downloading files or installing programs can be extremely dangerous, so you should make sure that your system is not infected.

Finally, we recommend performing a full system scan with FortectIntego PC repair and maintenance utility. It can easily clean your browsers from trackers and fix any damage that could have been caused by malware.