[for-q-clinton]

This is standard. It’s telling you that your password was changed. If you didn’t change it then someone else did and you have problems to fix.

[Fresh Wind]

If your password on a Verizon account was changed, Verizon would contact you, not anyone from Microsoft.

[pabianice]

I have no Microsoft password. Besides, we got this email seven times for the same account, all from a made-up account name.

[Flick Lives]

This is standard. It’s telling you that your password was changed. If you didn’t change it then someone else did and you have problems to fix.

Or more insidious, it is a fake message your password was changed and the link in the email will take you to a fake Microsoft site where it requests you to login with your user ID and password, resulting in the hacker getting your real account info!

Whenever I get one of these sorts of emails, which may or may not be fakes, I first hover the mouse over the link in the email. If this reveals a completely bogus web server address, I toss the email in the spam folder. If the address looks legit, I still don't click the link. Instead I go to my browser and navigate myself to Microsoft, Apple, or wherever the email purports to be from and login directly.

This happened to me a few days back and after logging directly in, it looked like someone was attempting to hack into my Apple ID, having generated a case number to try and "fix" a failed login issue, caused by their hacking attempt. The simplest option the Apple site suggested was changing my password, which I did.

I use a really long, randomly generated password (thanks 1Password!) and 2-factor authentication, to make life miserable for any would-be password hackers.