email

A lawyer is suing Microsoft for $1.75 million after being locked out of his email account. David M Schlachter says a bug meant he couldn't verify his identity, making the account useless. According to Schlachter, the problem was with his paid Office ... 365 account. After using it for six years, he was locked out in May by a two-step verification check. The check would send a verification code to his phone, either via a text message or an automated voice call. However, when Schlachter tried to choose one of these options and initiate the check, he'd simply see a message reading "Sorry, we're ... (view more)

BlackBerry has announced its phones will finally stop working this week. It's a move six years in the making and in many ways it's insane that anyone is still using them. Specifically the company will be hitting the killswitch on services for ... BlackBerry 7.1 and earlier, the software for the BlackBerry 10 device, and BlackBerry PlayBook 2.1 (for its short-lived tablet range) and earlier. The move only affects devices running BlackBerry's own software. It doesn't affect its range of Android-based devices. Although the number of people affected is relatively low, BlackBerry is keen to get the ... (view more)

Two thirds of emails contain a "spy pixel" according to one provider. The invisible pixel could let companies discover where people live and what devices they own. At the very least, it will report back to spammers that the email has been opened, ... which then validates your email address and will result in additional spam. The figures comes from "Hey," an email provider that offers a paid service rather than scanning emails to get information for targeted advertising. That means it's possible its user base isn't reflective of the general public, though that shouldn't distort the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Mike J. writes: " Dear Dennis, Thanks for your article on ' cannot start outlook, cannot open window '. I have a similar problem. I recently had to format my machine and reinstall Windows 10, then reinstall Office 365. I'm now at ... the part where I want to set up my email account with Outlook, but I've made a huge mistake during the setup: I told Outlook that my email address is associated with a Microsoft Exchange server instead of IMAP. Now I can't undo the changes! Here's what's happening: when I try to launch Outlook, it keeps asking for my login credentials repeatedly ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Leona H. writes: " Dear Dennis, I'm trying to upgrade from Outlook 2010 to Outlook 365 and I it takes a long time to start, stating that it 'cannot start outlook, cannot open window' or such. Actually, the full error message is: ' ... Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook Window . The set of folders cannot be opened. The attempt to logon to Microsoft Exchange has failed.' I don't understand how to get around this problem. I currently have Office 2010 and Office 365 installed. It only happens when I launch Outlook 365. Initially when I started Outlook ... (view more)

PayPal has released a list of tips for avoiding scam emails. It follows officials in the UK receiving more than a thousand reports of phishing emails in just one day. The reports were about a series of fake emails claming to be from PayPal . They ... followed a familiar format of claiming the recipient's account had been limited because of a violation of the company's Acceptable Use Policy. (Source: countypress.co.uk ) The messages included a link supposedly pointing to PayPal for the user to log in and confirm their identity. In fact the link took the user to a fake page designed to trick them ... (view more)

An email with a "winky face" for a subject line has helped a malware campaign become one of the most widespread in the world. It's a scam to expand the reach of the Phorpiex botnet which distributes spam and malware from infected machines to others ... online the Internet. According to researchers at security company Check Point, Phorpiex jumped from the 13th most detected malware campaign in May to the number two slot last month. It reports that one in 50 organizations suffered at least one attempted breach from Phorpiex last month. (Source: zdnet.com ) Ransomware, Botnets and Blackmail The ... (view more)

Microsoft wants to stop one of the most annoying parts of email. It's going to try cutting the vicious cycle of the "reply all" message storm. The problem arises when somebody sends a group message to a large number of people and then one of the ... recipients mistakenly (or perhaps worse, deliberately) clicks on "Reply All" rather than simply using "Reply" to address the original sender. Not only does that mean the entire group seeing the reply, but it can quickly spark others to reply, extend a conversation, point out the error, or make a joke. In some cases, the configuration means that all of ... (view more)

An email scam that aims to exploit embarrassment appears to be back in full effect. The scam involves the recipient getting a message falsely claiming somebody has hacked their computer through an adult website, then accessed their webcam and filmed ... the person enjoying said website. It goes on to claim the hacker has gathered a list of contacts from the user's email and Facebook accounts and threatens to send a copy of the embarrassing video to the person's friends and family. To stop this, the victim must pay the equivalent of $1,900 in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Email Allegedly Tracked The ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Daniel B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I wanted to pass along this message to let your readers know of a new and incredibly convincing fake Norton email renewal scam involving Norton Antivirus and Lifelock. I received two emails today ... (from two different email addresses) with a special promotion to 'upgrade' my Norton Antivirus and Lifelock with an enticing 67% discount off the retail price. The emails are incredibly convincing, unless of course you are knowledgeable enough to realize it's a scam. If you click on a link to read more or to buy the product, it will lead you to a ... (view more)