Cybercriminals are nothing if not timely. Whatever’s in the news, you can expect to see a phishing scam to follow.

Since it's election season in the United States, we’ve started to spot scams that attempt to lure unsuspecting voters into fraudulent transactions. The Better Business Bureau warns consumers of text messages and social media postings that claim (among other things) that President Obama will pay your utility bill. They say you only need to provide your social security number.  

Don’t do it.

We agree with the Better Business Bureau that you should never provide your social security number, banking information, or credit card number over the phone. The same goes for offering this information over email, in a text message, or on a social networking site. If you want to donate to a political campaign, learn how to avoid donation scams.

Get more tips on how to recognize and avoid scam emails and websites.  Also, learn how to help protect yourself from phishing scams.

If you use Hotmail, you might have seen a message that says your mailbox can be upgraded to Outlook.com. In addition to a new look and feel and tools to help you be more productive, Outlook.com offers more privacy. You’re in control of your data, and your personal conversations aren’t used for ads.

We don't scan your email content or attachments and sell this information to advertisers or any other company. You decide whether to connect your account to any social networks, and you're in control of who you friend or follow. 

For more information, see Outlook.com privacy: frequently asked questions. 

We’ve received reports about a new phishing scam email that tells “email users across the world” to validate their email account or it will be deleted from “the world email server.”

This email is fake, but it does use the official logo of the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit (DCU). The Microsoft DCU is a real worldwide team of lawyers, investigators, technical analysts, and other specialists partnering internationally to disrupt cybercrime and transform the fight against digital crime to make the world safer.

If you receive an email like this you can ignore it and delete it. You can also report it.

This email contains three of the common signs of a scam:

• Impersonation of a well-known company or organization
• Time-sensitive threats to delete your account
• Requests to click a link in an email

Get more information on how to recognize phishing email messages, links, or phone calls.

Gabby writes:

I just wanted to let you know that I received a phone call this evening from a guy called “Daniel” from “Technical Maintenance of Microsoft Windows.” He said that Microsoft had received error messages from my computer and he asked me to turn my computer on and follow his directions to fix this. I told him that I would sort it out myself and hung up on him.

That sounds like a typical tech support phone scam that cybercriminals use to:

• Trick you into downloading malicious software.
• Take control of your computer remotely and adjust settings to leave your computer vulnerable.
• Request credit card information so they can bill you for phony services.

Gabby did the right thing by hanging up on “Daniel.” For more information, see Avoid tech support phone scams.

Last week we answered a question about what to do if your Hotmail account is sending out spam. We mentioned resetting your password if you can’t sign in because your account has been blocked. One way you can unblock it is to respond to an email message sent by Microsoft to the secondary address you listed when you opened the account.

Many of you wrote in asking what to do if you no longer have access to that secondary email account. The answer: you will need to fill out a support request. (In fact, now would be a good time to make sure that your secondary address is correct.)

Even better, you can associate your Hotmail account with your mobile phone number or other information that hackers cannot easily access. For example, if you lose your password or your account is hacked, Hotmail sends you an account-recapture code in a text message to help you regain access.

You can also set up a "trusted PC"—associate your Hotmail account with one or more of your personal computers. If you need to reset your password to regain control of your account and you use a trusted PC, Hotmail will know you are the legitimate owner.

Microsoft releases security updates on the second Tuesday of every month. 

The bulletin announces the release of 9 security updates:

• 6 updates for Microsoft Windows
• 2 update for Microsoft Office
• 1 update for Internet Explorer

Get the updates.

Watch a video about the updates.

To get more information about security updates and other privacy and security issues delivered to your email inbox, sign up for our newsletter.

Today the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) posted details about the August security updates. On Tuesday, August 14 at approximately 10 AM Pacific Time Microsoft will release 9 bulletins.

The easiest way to get the updates when they're available is to turn on Windows automatic updating. For more information about how this works, see Understanding Windows automatic updating.

The Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification Service offers details about security updates approximately three business days before they are released. We do this to allow customers (especially IT professionals) to plan for effective deployment of security updates.

Advanced Notification includes information about:

• The number of new security updates being released
• The software affected
• Severity levels of vulnerabilities
• Information about any detection tools relevant to the updates

We’ve received reports of fake emails, fake websites, and other scams that take advantage of people’s interest in the 2012 Olympics.

Here are our top tips for avoiding spam and malware of any kind:

• Use email that filters spam. (Try the new Outlook.com, which helps limit spam in your inbox to less than 3 percent of the items.)
• Defend your PC against malicious software with Microsoft Security Essentials (free real-time protection).
• Learn to recognize dangerous spam and avoid it.

To get your gold medal in online safety, see How to boost your malware defense and protect your PC.

Laura writes:

My Hotmail email address has been hacked. Someone sent out a spam email to everyone in my address book. What do I do?

If it makes you feel any better, Laura, we get this question a lot. Here’s what to do right now:

• If you can still sign in to your account, change your password right away.
• If you can’t sign into your account, try to reset your password.

IMPORTANT: Make sure your new password isn’t one that you use on other accounts or websites. Also, create a password using eight or more characters that don’t form a word that can be found in the dictionary. Find more tips for creating strong passwords.

Should I let everyone know that I’ve been hacked?

Recently we’ve been asked whether we recommend that you send everyone in your contact list an email that warns them not to click on links in emails from you. This really is a personal choice. The most important thing to do is change your password right away.

Personally, we don’t think that an email to everyone in your contact list is necessary. Here’s why:

• It’s time consuming. Your email contact list could contain every person to whom you’ve ever sent a message from that address. Your email program probably won’t allow you to send one message to everyone in your contact list because it will view it as spam.
• We think most people probably already know that a message with a random link is usually spam—especially if it’s from someone who doesn’t contact them regularly. Chances are good that such people make up a majority of your contacts, so they might consider an email telling them what they already know as more spam.

However, if you know of anyone in your contact list who is less computer savvy, it couldn’t hurt to send them an email.

If you use the new Outlook.com free email service and you get spam email from someone, you can notify them and then, from the Mark as menu, click My friend’s been hacked to notify Outlook so we can minimize the damage as soon as possible. Learn more about the new Outlook.com.

What do you think?

Should victims of email hacking notify everyone in their contact list? Give us your opinion in the “Leave a Comment” section below. 

Outlook.com is Microsoft’s new free cloud email service for personal use. You can use Outlook.com with the Outlook desktop application, via the web at http://outlook.com, or via other email apps that support Exchange ActiveSync or POP3.

The new Outlook.com offers several security and privacy features, including:

• Limiting spam in your inbox to less than 3 percent of the items.
• Turning on the encryption feature (SSL) by default, which helps protect your account on wireless networks and public computers.
• Displaying trusted senders in your inbox.

For more information, see Introducing Outlook.com.

Want to keep up with the latest Outlook news? Follow @Outlook on Twitter.