- Microsoft warns of phishing targeting Microsoft 365 users via fake service health emails
- Phishing emails mimic Exchange Online outage EX1550543 with urgent message deletion claims
- Fraudulent emails use specific subject lines and sender names to appear legitimate
Microsoft has alerted users about an active phishing campaign in which cybercriminals are exploiting the company's recent Microsoft 365 service to trick recipients into clicking malicious links. In the cybercrime, the hackers are disrupting and potentially exposing their account credentials.
In a warning issued on Saturday, Microsoft said: "The messages impersonate Microsoft 365 service health notifications and reference the legitimate Exchange Online incident EX1550543. Some of the phishing emails Microsoft detected on November 13 falsely claim that messages were held during the outage and will be deleted within 24 hours unless recipients click to restore them."
According to Microsoft, the fraudulent emails use subject lines following the format "Outage - [six-character code]," while sender display names contain organisation-specific prefixes followed by phrases such as "Outage Notification" or "Service Health" to make the messages appear authentic.
Microsoft identified three sender domains associated with the campaign: moments-notice[.]com, planetmaison[.]com and newbooker[.]com. The emails contain recipient-specific SendGrid tracking links that redirect users to reallifeaccounting[.]com, including a webpage hosted at the path /themelist0.html.
The campaign has reportedly targeted organisations across multiple sectors in the United States. Microsoft said the activity is consistent with credential phishing, although it has not confirmed whether account credentials have been collected or malware has been delivered.
The company has urged organisations to "use Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Threat Explorer and Microsoft Defender XDR advanced hunting (EmailEvents, EmailUrlInfo, and UrlClickEvents) to identify suspicious messages, examine embedded URLs and investigate user clicks".
Microsoft also recommended verifying Safe Links protection policies to provide real-time checks against malicious URLs.
Users have been advised to verify service disruption notifications directly through the Microsoft 365 admin centre rather than clicking links in unexpected emails. The warning highlights how cybercriminals exploit genuine service outages to make phishing attacks appear credible and increase the likelihood of successful deception.
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