One of the most basic things that people can do to avoid installing any kind of malware on their PC is not to open every single email they receive. Malware is distributed by this method all the time, such as the message that one person clicked on in 2012 that led to a massive attack on the online tax records of South Carolina.
Today, there"s word of yet another email that"s making the rounds of the Internet that could make people think it is a real security warning. The Naked Security blog reports that the email looks, at least at first, like it comes from the Digital Crimes Unit division at Microsoft. This is the same department that has been going after a number of criminal botnets, such as the recent takedown of the Bamital botnet.
As you can see above, the email claims that all users of Microsoft products have to "validate there [sic] email account information" by downloading an attached file. The file is, in fact, a version of the Troj/Agent-AANA Trojan horse.
Many people might figure out that this email is not legitimate due to some spelling errors, along with its use of the now outdated Microsoft logo. However, there are plenty of others who might be fooled into downloading the attached file.
Source: Naked Security | Image via Naked Security