Webmail mailbox exceeds storage limit warning email? Huh?

Dave's Answer:

It's a phishing attempt. I get these every so often too. The most recent reads like this:

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This message was sent automatically by a program on Webmail which periodically checks the size of inboxes, where new messages are received.

Your mailbox has exceeded the storage limit set by your administrator. You may not be able to send or receive new mail until your mailbox size is increased by your system administrator.

To help us re-set your SPACE on our database prior to maintain your INBOX,you must contact your system administrator by replying this e-mail and enter your: Current Username: { } and Password: { } to increase your storage limit.

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Before going any further, as soon as you see a request for your password, you should immediately just delete the message. Any message.

Let me say that again, in bold:

Any email that asks for a password is bogus. Just delete it!

If you think about it, no real administrator would ever need your password: if they are the admin for the system, they have the ability to access your account and make any necessary changes or updates anyway. This is as true for email "from" eBay, Paypal and Amazon.com as it is from "your system administrator".

Strike two on this email, btw, is if you look at the address of the sender, it's probably something like:

I'm willing to bet a big bowl of fresh blueberries that your ISP doesn't own the domain "helpdesk.com" and if it doesn't, why would it be using that as a return address?

In fact, if you try to respond, you'll find that it is going to route to a public email service anyway. Mine was pointing to "help.desk095@live.com" which is an account that I imagine has been shut down by the time you read this.

The long and short of it is that any time you see the magic request to specify your password or other access code just delete the message.

If you're not 100% sure, email your administrator with an address you know gets to them (or go through the admin help form on the Web site) and ask if there are any pending issues or problems. Odds are you're good to go.