Wife received a very disturbing email.

Dear Sirs:
My wife received this email from a so called Microsoft Billing USA.
With a so called Fraudulent phone # 917-737-5339 from Microsoft.
They only are billing us for $3437.88
We haven't ordered anything from Microsoft.
Order confirmation # is MS-1074828.
Thought you might want to warn others.
We of course will just delete the message.
jps99

It's not so much disturbing as it is the norm unfortunately in an interconnected world where the opportunity to manipulate others is as easy as sending them a letter hoping they read it and then do what the sender wants them to do. In this case you likely have a URL in the email that leads to a phishing website, or a premium rate phone number they want you to dial and connect to for an extended period of time. In this scenario you should do NEITHER. It's likely you haven't been personally targetted but instead your information ie email address has been used as part of a mass phishing campaign. It's very easy these days to buy huge dumps of personal information that people willingly hand over to websites on the internet without verifying their authenticity. This information is then bunched together and sold as a package on black market websites/forums for a reasonable fee where fraudsters buy it and then utilise it in their campaigns. Cold callers sometimes have the same access to these dark resources hidden on the web and therefore have your information including your name, birthdate, address etc without you knowing and therefore seem more legitimate. This is what makes them that bit more annoying because they seemingly know about you before you even talk to them!
In actuality, you provided this information on a website at some time in the past, recently or more distant.

With this information they then bait you into a false sense of security so you hand over sensitive information. In this case, the false sense of security is based on an email coming from a globally recognised company in Microsoft and their products. The goal is to see how much they can take from you while you believe they are a trusted source.

Can you provide a screenshot of the email for us to see? It will be interesting to see what the email contains, and may serve as one potential template for others to see as to what a phishing email looks like. Make sure to remove your email address before uploading here.

P.S The number you are referring is a number that 'originates' from Bronx, NY. There is ZERO results for a Microsoft number under that number. It is a 'virtual' number you can buy that is hosted by a VOIP provider. It costs significantly less than paying for a fixed line and because it doesn't require any installation, extensive setup and/or bandwidth requirements to create, they are vastly cheaper than fixed lines. They can also be setup with fraudulent account details and stolen credit cards etc which do not tie back to the fraudster commanding the operation.

Here's some websites that can help you mitigate risks from phishing;

Phishing | 10 Ways to Avoid Phishing Scams
What is phishing? How this cyber attack works and how to prevent it | CSO Online

jps99 said:

Dear Sirs:
My wife received this email from a so called Microsoft Billing USA.
With a so called Fraudulent phone # 917-737-5339 from Microsoft.
They only are billing us for $3437.88
We haven't ordered anything from Microsoft.
Order confirmation # is MS-1074828.
Thought you might want to warn others.
We of course will just delete the message.
jps99

Move it to your spam folder so it's blocked. And.... done!

sygnus21 said:

Obviously you know its a scam. Just delete and move on. I've gotten a few scam emails - It happens.

It's not as obvious as you think. The number one cause of damage directly/indirectly to computers is through phishing. Most hacks start with a phishing campaign. Some go on for weeks, months, even years. I listened to a podcast by a well known security researcher who talked about a specially crafted phishing campaign (called spear-phishing) that swept through an entire company in order to obtain access to a single computer. The US government was a target of phishing, several times in fact. That's allegedly how Hillary Clinton's and John' emails were 'hacked'. These are TOP BRASS of arguably the most powerful government on the planet. Bad guys don't need to infect your computer with viruses disguised as real software anymore. The ransomware attacks that threatened states across the country all began with phishing emails. You don't need an elaborate virus made by a whizz kid like you see in the movies, all the effort is poured into social engineering these days to get information you need to then just walk on in to your where your victims sensitive information is. Most of the time it's practically given to the bad guys.

So it might be obvious to you, even to the OP, but research heavily suggests, and this is public information and widely known, it's not at all obvious to the majority of the global population who use computers whether technically proficient or not. Experts get phished all the time! The best phishing attempts are the ones that are the best crafted campaigns, and these often look no different to the genuine communications you receive. It may be a simple email from a work colleague whose on holiday asking you for access to work emails. It could be so intelligently crafted it follows up from some communication you've genuinely just had that the bad guy knows about through his/her information gathering phase. There's low level phishing which requires zero knowledge/experience and then there's high level criminal enterprises that can get through government security perimeters without ever sounding an alarm. They can then get through your perimeters pretty easily. These aren't your Nigerian prince emails either saying you've got a million dollars waiting for you.

Phishing is a real threat, man. You're not talking about the whole world when you talk about yourself in this example

Order Purchase Confirmation
MICROSOFT.BILLING.USA <MICROSOFT.BILLING.USA@pro
tonmail.com>
Sun 5/17/2020 7.47 AM
Thank you for your order.

Your Order Confirmation number is: MS-1074828. Your product
key to activate your software can be found below.
#Product
#MS Surface 56417l7
Home and Office 2020 xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-W269N
Subtotal: $3,270.90
Shipping: 76.99
Tax: 89.99
Total: 3,437.88

*If you do not recognize this purchase or modify the order,
please reach MICROSOFT-FRAUDULENT TEAM at 917-737-5339

Per the request of Supermammalego

Unfortunately this sort of thing is all too common these days.