Is this Microsoft security alert email real?
Yes, this is a scam: fake Microsoft alerts push you to sign in through an email button, PDF, or QR code.
If it asks you to sign in from an email button, PDF, or QR code, it is fake. Open Microsoft security yourself.
![Recreated example of the Microsoft scam email: Subject: Unusual sign-in activity detected
From: Microsoft account team <account-security-noreply@rnicrosoft.com>
We detected a new sign-in to your Microsoft account.
Location: Moscow, Russia
Device: Windows Chrome
Time: 04:18 UTC
If this was you, you can ignore this message. If this was not you, your Microsoft account access will be suspended in 2 hours to protect your Outlook, OneDrive, Teams, and SharePoint data.
Review recent activity: hxxps://login.microsoft.com.security-review[.]site/common/oauth2/authorize
Business users: open the attached Secure_Message.pdf and verify your Microsoft 365 session. Failure to verify will disable Outlook mail flow and OneDrive file sync.](/shot/microsoft-security-alert-email-scam.png)
What to do now
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Leave the email intact and close the PDF or browser tab.
Do not delete it yet. Keeping the message preserves headers, links, attachment names, and sender routing, which helps Outlook, Microsoft, or your workplace security team trace the campaign instead of seeing only a screenshot.
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Type account.microsoft.com/security and review Sign-in activity.
Use this for a personal Microsoft account, then compare the locations, devices, and times against the email claim. This shows whether the alert matches a real sign-in instead of forcing you through the message’s button.
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For work accounts, open mysignins.microsoft.com and check Recent activity.
Use the work or school account tied to Microsoft 365, not a personal account. This shows recent successful and failed sign-ins for that identity, which is the record the email is pretending to summarize.
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Change the password from a clean browser, then use Sign me out.
For a personal Microsoft account, go to account.microsoft.com/security, change the password, then use the advanced security option to sign out. A password change does not kill stolen session tokens by itself; signing out targets active sessions.
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Ask your Microsoft 365 admin to revoke sessions in Entra.
Tell them whether you clicked, opened a PDF, scanned a QR code, entered a password, approved MFA, or granted app permissions. At entra.microsoft.com, admins can revoke sessions and review sign-in logs, risky users, OAuth app consent, and mailbox access.
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Report the message with Outlook Report Phishing or phish@office365.microsoft.com.
In Outlook, use the built-in Report Phishing button when it is available. If you forward it, send the suspicious message as an attachment to phish@office365.microsoft.com so Microsoft receives the headers and original links.
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Check Outlook rules, forwarding, and sent mail before you call it clean.
In Outlook on the web, review Settings, Mail, Rules, then check Forwarding and Sent Items. Takeovers often add quiet forwarding, delete security notices, or send invoice and file-share fraud from the trusted mailbox.
How to spot the Microsoft scam
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Open no Microsoft alert button that starts a fresh sign-in.
Real checking happens inside Microsoft account security after you open it yourself. The scam needs its own path because the fake sign-in can copy the Microsoft flow, collect the password, relay the MFA challenge, and take the live session.
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Compare the full sender domain with accountprotection.microsoft.com.
Old versions use account-security-noreply@rnicrosoft.com, where r-n imitates m, or micros0ft.com, where zero replaces o. Newer versions arrive through real-looking Microsoft notification routes, so the display name Microsoft account team is not proof.
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Stop at links where microsoft.com is not the registrable domain.
In hxxps://login.microsoft.com.security-review[.]site, the domain that owns the page is security-review[.]site, not microsoft.com. The Microsoft words sit at the front because people read left to right and quit before the real root.
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Do not open a PDF or scan a QR code to verify Microsoft 365.
Attachments named Secure_Message.pdf, Account_Review.pdf, or Microsoft365_Update.pdf usually contain one button or one QR code. That move gets the victim out of the mail scanner and onto a credential page the attacker controls.
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Ignore countdowns that threaten Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, or SharePoint lockout.
The wording usually says access stops in 30 minutes or 2 hours unless you verify. Microsoft 365 tenants do lock accounts in real incidents, but that decision appears in admin and sign-in controls, not in a consumer-style email timer.
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Close the page if a link-fed Microsoft login looks perfect.
Adversary-in-the-middle pages proxy the real Microsoft sign-in screen, so the logo, fonts, password box, and MFA prompt look normal. When you finish that flow, the proxy steals the live session token and the attacker enters without asking for the password again.
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Never approve the MFA prompt that follows the email link.
The push, code, or number match is not proof that the email was real. On a relay page, your approval completes the attacker’s sign-in while you think you are cancelling a Moscow login.
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Do not grant app consent after a Microsoft alert link.
Some Microsoft 365 phish skip the password and ask you to accept permissions for a harmless-looking app. Consent gives the app mailbox, files, profile, or offline access until an admin removes it, even after you close the page.
Got a message like this? Check its link free
Paste the link it asks you to open. Bewary checks its domain and live scam feeds, and gives you a straight answer and the reason why.
Sources and reporting
Use official channels to confirm a suspicious request and report fraud.
- Microsoft Security Blog – Phishing actors exploit complex routing and misconfigurations to spoof domainsmicrosoft.com
- Microsoft Support – Protect yourself from phishingsupport.microsoft.com
- TechCrunch – Scammers are abusing an internal Microsoft account to send spam linkstechcrunch.com
- Infosecurity Magazine – Microsoft Flags Mass Phishing Campaign Using Fake Compliance Emailsinfosecurity-magazine.com