14 DAY TRIAL // A new phishing scam is targeting Netflix users by telling them that their accounts were canceled due to a payment issue. The purpose of the scam is gathering credit card information from unsuspecting users.
The message received by users is rather brief and only states that “there was a problem processing your credit card,” and asks people to update the information to keep the account active; a typical phishing scheme.
Despite the fact that the message is signed by “The Nexflix Team,” things couldn’t be further from the truth, and you should really not go through with the process, even if you do end up clicking on the provided link.
Clicking on the link will actually take you to a fake webpage that looks like the genuine Netflix site, where you can fill in your account login credentials, as well as the credit card details and other personal information. The data can then be used by hackers to steal people’s identity and money from their accounts.
Targeting Netflix users isn’t exactly a new experience, and if you often receive such emails, you should make sure that they’re really from Netflix. Furthermore, as a common practice, even if you do believe the emails to be genuine, never follow links inside them. Instead, go to Netflix, login directly through the site, and go to your account settings and check if there’s a problem.
This should be applied to all Internet services in order to avoid phishing scams.