With almost over million active users, Netflix is one of the most popular streaming video services in the world.
And as you might imagine, that makes them and their customers extremely popular targets for hackers and scammers.
Netflix users have been receiving phishing emails for years, but the one that’s making the rounds right now is extremely dangerous, and far too many Netflix customers are falling for it.
The scam works like this:
You receive an email that appears to be from Netflix. The email explains that your membership information needs to be updated, and a link is provided that will supposedly take you to a page on the Netflix website where you can update your info.
The problem is that link will take you to an extremely realistic-looking, but fake Netflix login page.
If you fall for the scam and enter your login details, you’ll then be taken to a different fake page where you’ll be prompted to enter your personal info – including your credit card number and expiration date!
If you follow through and enter all the information the fraudulent website asks for the scammers will end up in possession of all of the following:
- Your Netflix login information
- Your credit card details
- All the personal information the scammer will need in order to hijack your Netflix account, steal your identity and max out your credit card
Pretty scary stuff, right?
Unfortunately, this has turned out to be one of the most sophisticated and most successful phishing scams in history.
What makes it so easy to fall for this iteration of the Netflix phishing scam is the amazingly authentic look of the fake login screen.
Luckily, it’s very easy to avoid this scam (and virtually all other email phishing scams for that matter).
All you have to do is avoid clicking any links in an email regardless of how authentic it looks. Instead, visit the company’s website directly and log in to your account from there.
Once you’ve logged into your account on the company’s official website you’ll be prompted to make any required updates via their secure data entry forms.
And finally, there are two exceptions to the “Never click any links in an email rule”…
1 – It’s safe to click the link to confirm your email address in the confirmation email you’ll receive when signing up for a new online service.
Just make sure you really are in the process of signing up with them when the email arrives. After all, fake confirmation emails are prevalent as well.
2 – It’s generally safe to click the links contained in newsletter emails you actually signed up to receive IF you completely trust the newsletter publisher.
Bottom line: Fraudulent links in fake emails are the number one tool used by scammers in their phishing attempts. Don’t click on them!