The account security information for your Microsoft account (email) is scheduled to be removed‏

The account security information for your Microsoft account (*****************@hotmail.com) is scheduled to be removed.
     -  ************@hotmail.com
     -  1-***-***-****

When I logged into my (email#2) it asked me to confirm that I owned the account before bringing me to my inbox.

I had 3 options to verify my account.

1. (email#1) I still use this email

2. my old phone number

3. I don't use these anymore

Because I did not have access to my old phone I could not use that and tried to use email. This of course failed because Hotmail does not allow you to log into 2 emails at the same time. so I clicked option 3 and entered my new phone number. after verifying with my new number I received an email on both my accounts that my account security information is scheduled to be removed, and replaced with the new phone number.

I only want to update the phone number, not remove the email link. There seems to be no option to remove only 1 security link, or add more than 1(or an email for that matter). It is possible this question has been asked before but I did not find it. Several questions about this mention a scam message. How do I know if I have a real one? (This started when I logged in not after clicking on an email)

Please help,

Laser